Spirit
by P2tbAnimeGirl
Summary: Tori is a Special fledgling at the House of Night. Nyx has gifted her with a special affinity, one that has rarely been seen in other fledglings. Now Tori must find her place as one of Nyx's daughters. That is if she'll survive the Change.   DISCONTINUED
1. Marked

Disclaimer: The House of Night series belongs to P.C. Cast and Kristin Cast. They are the owners and writers of the amazing series. This is just a fanfic that I wrote and I only own my OCs.

**Chapter One – Marked**

"Victoria Chase", Mr. Asher, my trigonometry teacher, called. "Can you please, as hard as it may be, bring your attention back to this class room? You're off in space again."

His remark earned a few giggles out of the class, as well as a few glares in my direction. This was the normal part of my day. This was a routine in almost every class. It was the teacher's fault that they always placed me by the window, so obviously I daydreamed every chance I got. But today was as abnormal as it could get. There was a good reason for that too. I was focused on more important matters, such as the dead guy at the front of the class.

Okay, I knew he wasn't technically "Dead", just undead. There really was no mistaking what he really was, even if I hadn't noticed the sapphire-blue Mark that danced across his face, there was no way for me not to feel the power that radiated off of him. He was a vampyre. And worse than that, he was a tracker.

"Victoria Chase! Night has chosen thee; thy death will be thy birth. Night calls to thee; hearken to Her sweet voice. Your destiny awaits you at the House of Night!" The vampyre spoke the ceremonial words, his voice like ice water. He lifted one ghostly white finger and pointed at me. A wave of pain washed over my forehead. If his loud and ceremonial words had not caught everybody's attention, my blood-curdling shriek sure did.

Sitting in the Principals office was never fun, especially when the entire staff in the office was freaked out by you and kept as far away as possible from you. It was like I had caught the plague and I could give it to them at any second.

I was officially Marked, a monster in the eyes of every single person in the world. Turning into a monster was the brighter of my choices at the moment though. Rejecting the Change and dyeing was the darkest.

Mr. Lim, the principal, was in his office calling my parents…And the House of Night. I could hear the disgust in his voice as he talked to whoever was on the other end of the House of Night line. And his call to my parents was just as stern, and the message was clear; I was no longer wanted in this school.

The wait for my mom to come pick me up was only fifteen minutes long, but it felt much longer than that. I was dreading the look my own mother would give me. '_Please let her understand_," I silently prayed to whatever god or goddess might be listening to me.

"Oh, God! Look at that thing! It's worse than I thought!" The woman I called my Mom freaked as she opened the office door and found the mark on my forehead.

"Mrs. Chase, we understand that when one of students has been Marked is always hard, especially for the parents of the student. We can offer some school -" The principal started while coming out of his office.

"There is nothing that you or this school could offer us that would help." Mom interrupted..

"Come on mom, let's go home." I said, sensing an argument in the making. Mom was ridiculously dramatic and it would only be a matter of time before she started yelling and causing a scene.

"Fine. Let's go." She replied as she stormed out of the office, I followed closely behind. "What am I going to tell your father? Where do I even begin to explain something this serious?" She asked, mostly to herself, as she got into the car and started the engine. I choose to sit in the back seat, to create distance between us. And knowing that she would be expecting an answer, I replied with,

"I don't know."

"Are you sure you can't even cover that hideous thing up with makeup?" She asked, looking at me in the mirror.

"I don't think so." I said in response. I turned my attention to the window next to me, ignoring the drama my mom was spewing.

As usual, mom parked the car in the garage.

"Go to your room while I talk to your father." She instructed me. I didn't bother replying, I just nodded my head and walked through the garage and to my room.

My room was small with baby blue colored walls, a bed, dresser, book shelf, desk, and window. Even though I did all of my reading, school work, and sleeping here, it never really felt like my room. My parents did all of the decorating, and they even choose what books I could buy and read. I owned all of the Chicken Soup for the Soul books, a copy of the bible, and other books like that sat on the small book shelf. The room was bland, a washed out blue color was over everything. I had asked about a million times if I could redecorate the room, too bad my loser parents never let me.

Going into my backpack, I pulled out a small mirror that I kept hidden in one of the pockets. Opening the little mirror I saw my mark for the first time.

My reflection was like looking at the face of a familiar stranger. It was like I was seeing that person in the crowd and swearing that I knew them from somewhere, but I didn't really know them at all. Now that person was me. I was a familiar stranger to myself.

The stranger had my eyes, a hazel color that could never decide whether it wanted to be green or brown. She also had my hair – long and straight and almost as black as the night sky itself. Though her bright white Irish skin seemed to be a lot paler than it normally was. And the dark blue outline of the crescent moon that was perfectly positioned in the middle of her forehead looked out of place and stood out.

I knew that I was staring at a reflection of myself, but this image just didn't seem to fit. I mostly focused on the exotic-looking tattoo. Even though I knew this wasn't the case, it looked like the tattoo was natural on me, like it had been there all my life. It felt like it almost belonged on me.

Through the thin walls I could hear my Mom's hysterical conversation with my Dad. Hearing their voices pulled me away from my original thoughts and sending me away on thoughts of a different topic.

It was times like this that I missed Anne the most. Anne was my sister, five years older than me. I was eleven when she was Marked. At first my parents were ok with the whole Marked and turning-into-a-vampyre thing. They gave their love and support to her as we moved from New York to Tulsa Oklahoma. The first five months went well. We got letters and phone calls. We even got to visit her once a month, of course we went every chance we got. But then she rejected the Change and died.

My parents were heartbroken. They blamed the Adult vampyres for not taking better care of Anne. They thought that they had caused her to die. My own parents had become different people after Anne died. They joined the People of the Faith, which meant that I was no longer allowed to do what the Elders disapproved of. In other words, I wasn't allowed to be me. I hated all of the new rules and guidelines, but my Mom insisted that it would prevent me from being Marked. But I knew that was total bull.

Everyone knew that people weren't Marked because of their religion. People were Marked because of a physiological reaction that takes place in some teenager's bodies as their hormone levels rise. In certain people the hormones trigger something in a Junk DNA strand, which everyone has, and it starts the whole Change process.

"Victoria, your Mother and I need to talk to you." My father's voice called to me from within the living room.

Walking into the living room I found my parents sitting on the couch. My Mom's eyes were already read and watery from her conversation with my Dad. My Dad's eyes, on the other hand, were fixed on my mark.

"You and your sister," He started, his voice heavy with disgust. "I knew that your bad attitude and behavior would come back to haunt you. Your sister already paid her price, it looks like it's your turn."

"But I didn't do anything wrong" I interrupted.

"Do not interrupt me when I am speaking to you!" He snapped and didn't continue lecturing me until he was sure I wouldn't. "Your Mother and I have worked so hard, tried for so many years, and this is how you repay us? By getting Marked! You obviously haven't been reading your bible every night or praying with all your heart. And now this is your punishment!"

"Dad, this," I started, pointing to my mark. "Isn't something I caused. It was done to me, not because of me. Every scientist on this planet knows that being Tracked and Marked has nothing to do with the individual, it has to do with their DNA."

"Scientists are not men of God and are therefore not all-knowing."

"I never said that scientists are smarter than God!" I shot back in defense. This conversation was going nowhere, so I decided to take on a different approach. "Look, I need to get to the House of Night and soon. If I don't, I'll get sick. And if I get sick, I'll reject the Change and die just like Anne did."

I was interrupted by a sob from my Mom, who broke down crying again the moment I said my sister's name. My Dad looked at me as though I had added on another sin to my soul by saying her name.

"And if you guys don't drive me to my new home, then I'll call Aunt Tanya to help me move." I continued.

Aunt Tanya was my Dad's sister, and my favorite Aunt in the entire world. She spoiled me and allowed me to do things that my lame parents never let me do. She even taught me to drive last August before the start of the school year.

My parents on the other hand thought that she was immature, unintelligent, unreliable, and all that negative stuff. Basically they thought her soul was already condemned to hell and they didn't want me anywhere near her, but that never stopped me.

"Victoria, surely it wouldn't hurt if you spent just one night at home? There is no need to call your Aunt." My mom said once she stopped crying, which didn't take her very long at all. I could see the unhappiness in her eyes.

Dad narrowed his eyes when I opened my mouth to answer, and interrupted before I could speak.

"Of course it wouldn't. I think we should at the very least keep you here for one night before we give you away to the Vampyres. We can go to church tonight, that's a good idea. I'm sure Elder Montgomery would understand if I asked for a cleansing. And activating the prayer phone tree too would certainly help."

The People of the Faith had them so brain washed, it wasn't even funny. Those people created an illusion, and forced people to keep it up. They were about control, and now my parents were lousing the only one they had. And keeping me here and forcing me to go to church was one way to keep holding on to that that control they had over me.

Elder Montgomery was the Elder of our church. My Dad would ask him to try and "Fix" me. The man would probably anoint me with some chemical crap then lay his hands on me and pray. He would ask God to help me stop being such an awful teenager, to help me stay on the path of God and shy away from the Devil. He would also ask that my soul be cleansed of all my horrible sins that brought this mark upon me.

They were willing to do anything to keep me under their control. And if that meant keeping me here longer than I needed to be to the point where I got sick, they were willing to pay that price. But it wasn't a price I was willing to pay.

"Looks like you made your choice…and I've made mine." I said after a moment of thinking while they continued to rant on and on about how the Elders and the Church would be able to cure me. As if!

I turned from my parents and went to my room. Once inside I locked my door and took out my cell phone. Instinctively, I dialed my Aunt's Cell number. After several rings she answered.

"Hey there Tori!" She greeted, using the nickname that she had thought up for me. Hearing her voice sent waves of relief over me.

"Aunt Tanya, I need a favor." I said, beginning a very long conversation about the situation at hand.


	2. My New Home

**DISCLAIMER: I do not own the House of Night series. ****The House of Night series belongs to P.C. Cast and Kristin Cast. They are the owners and writers of the amazing series. This is just a fanfic that I wrote and I only own my OCs. Descriptions of cannon characters and places were taken from Marked. **

* * *

**Chapter Two – My New Home**

Needless to say, my parents weren't happy when my Aunt Tanya showed up at our door step. In fact, my dad tried to wave her away with a cross! And when my Mom slammed the front door in her face, Tanya snuck around to the back of the house and I had to help her climb through my window.

Neither my Mom or Dad offered to help me pack up what little belongings I had. Aunt Tanya didn't even bother to offer, she just went right to work packing up all of my clothes in a suitcase (saying "How can your mother even buy you such hideous clothing?" as she did). Packing up everything in my room didn't take very long, since there was barely anything that I wanted to keep. Copies of the Bible and Chicken Soup for the Soul were the only books I had, I didn't own any magazines, and my CD collection consisted of Gospel music. Did I really want to start my new life off still reading and listening to that stuff? Heck no.

The long car ride was a bit better though. Being away from the stress my parents caused helped. We talked for a long time, about the little things. How I was doing in school before, how I was doing living with my parents, how my friends were, just my life in general. Not being able to see Aunt Tanya often or even call her left a lot of gaps between us. She offered her good luck and words of advice, sympathy, understanding, and compassion to me. (She basically gave me everything that my parents didn't give me). It was only now that I realized just how much I missed spending time with her. And I would miss it all the more now that I had to spend the next four years turning into a Vampyre…if I even completed the Change that is.

And speaking of my parents and their stress, I bet it scared them that I was going to be a free bird now. They had just lost the only power and control in their lives. Too bad for them that I was getting mine back. After Anne died they became possessive control freaks over my life. This was my chance to start over, to get my life back from them. I was going to be making most of my own decisions now and it didn't matter what my Mom or Dad thought about that.

"We're here!" Tanya said brightly, awakening me from my positive train of thoughts about me getting my life back. "Wait here while I go inside and explain the situation." I nodded in agreement and she flashed me a warm smile.

Moments later my Aunt and a beautiful looking woman came walking out to the car. Actually saying that this woman was "Beautiful" was an understatement, she was actually just stunning. Her eyes were a almond-shaped emerald green. Her skin was flawless, like that kind of flawless creaminess that you only see on TV. Her hair was a dark, glossy auburn that fell in heavy waves well past her shoulders. And her body was just perfect, not that freaky thin that most girls were into. No, her body was perfect because she was strong, but curvy.

"Welcome to the House of Night." The woman greeted me.

"Thank you…um-" I replied, waiting for her to say her name.

"Neferet." She said, holding out her hand for me to shake.

"Neferet." I repeated with a smile as I went to shake hands with her, only to have her grip my forearm then let go. '_odd hand shake_' I thought to myself.

"Now Tori it's a good thing that your Mom brought you here when she did. Since you were just newly Marked and haven't been around any adult Vampyres yet, it is safe to suspect that you've been feeling quite sick up until this point. I would like to inform you that this is natural for a freshly Marked fledgling and that you should start feeling better later on tonight." Neferet explained.

"Um, thanks for letting me know…uh, but my name is Victoria, not Tori. And that's my Aunt, not my Mom. And I'm not sick. I feel just fine." I replied, trying my best not to be rude.

"You're not feeling ill?" Neferet asked.

"Nope. I'm in perfect health." I replied, feeling weird.

"You haven't been coughing? You haven't had a runny nose or headaches? Anything like that?" She asked.

"No. I haven't been coughing. I don't have a runny nose. And I don't have headaches or anything like that. I'm not sick." I replied, trying to be rude, but feeling a tad bit angry at the rapid fire questions about my health. It felt like I was in a doctor's office, being questioned, and about to find out that I had some terminal illness.

"That's odd…But moving right along. Now, as far as your name goes, one of the benefits of beginning a new life is that you have the opportunity to start over – to make choices you weren't given before. If you could choose, what would your true name be?" Neferet asked, moving away from the topic of my health.

I didn't hesitate. "Tori Willow."

"Then from this moment on, you shall be Tori Willow. Welcome to your new life." Neferet said with a smile. "Now, we already have a room and roommate picked out for you. Tori, would you like to meet your new roommate now or would you like to say goodbye to your Aunt first?"

I turned to my Aunt, rushed over to hug her, and said: "You better visit me whenever you can. I don't think I'll be able to keep my sanity when it's only my parents visiting."

"Of course I will! Call me if you need anything, regardless of time. I love you Tori." Aunt Tanya replied, hugging me back.

"I will. I love you, too. And thank you for bringing me here."

She kissed me gently on my cheek, took my suit case out of the trunk of the car, then drove off into the night, leaving me with my new life as a vampyre fledgling.

I picked up my suitcase, it was very light, and followed Neferet across the large courtyard.

As we walked, I gawked at the school. It looked like something you would see in a creepy dream. It was the middle of the night, and it should have been deeply dark, but there was a brilliant full moon shining above the huge old oaks that shaded everything. Freestanding gaslights housed in tarnished copper fixtures followed the sidewalks that ran parallel to the huge red brick and black rock building. It was three stories tall, had a weirdly high roof that pointed up and then flattened off at the top. The entire place had an alive and welcoming feeling though.

Across from the main buildings was a smaller one that looked older and a lot more church-like. Behind it and the old oaks that shaded the schoolyard, I could see the shadow of the enormous stone wall that surrounded the entire school. And in front of the church building, there stood a marble statue of a woman who was wearing long, flowing robes. I knew that this was a statue of the goddess Nyx, who is known as the Night personified.

Also, the part of the House of Night that held the dorms was all the way across the campus, so there was a fairly long walk. Neferet seemed to be walking slowly on purpose, giving me plenty of time to gawk at the buildings and everything surrounding them, not that I minded of course.

Once we reached the dorm house, I was surprised by the interior. The place was nice, decorated in soft blue and antique yellow, with comfy looking couches and clumps of puffy pillows big enough to sit on dotting the room like giant pastel M&Ms. The soft gaslight coming from several antique crystal chandeliers made the place look like a princess's castle. The walls were decorated with large oil-paintings of ancient women who looked exotic and powerful with their Marks. And fresh-cut flowers of every shape and color sat in vases on the end tables that were cluttered with books, purses, and other normal-looking teenage girl stuff. There were several flat screen TV's too.

"Ladies, this is Tori Willow. Greet her and welcome her to the House of Night." Neferet said, looking out at the crowd of teenage girls. Many of them said their hello and some even waved at me. I smiled, trying appear friendly.

After the greetings and hellos, Neferet led me down one of the many hall ways, then up a flight of wide stairs that curved to the right. We walked down a different hallway until we came to the end of it. At the end of the hall was a magnificent stained glass window. The glass was different shades of oranges, reds, yellows, blues, and greens, which were illuminated by the bright light of the moon. The image in the window was identical to the statue of Nyx outside.

With one last, warm smile, Neferet knocked on the door to the left.

"Come in!" called a mellow voce.

Neferet opened the door.

"Oh, Hello! Come in, come in!" With a huge grin, my new roomie, a brunet with glasses, jumped up to greet us.

"Emily, this is your new roommate. Tori Willow, this is Emily Nell." Neferet introduced us before leaving.

After greeting Emily, I started to unpack my very few belongings in the small untouched spot of the room that was mine. I noticed that Emily's side of the room was covered in pink. A fluffy pink chair sat in the corner of the room where her white desk sat. Her desk was cluttered with pink gel pens, papers and school books. Her bed, unlike mine, had probably been brought to the House of Night from her own home. Her bed was huge, with an attached shelving unit and book case attached. Her sheets and pillows were a sickening shade of neon pink. Little nick-knacks, such as horse figurines and those academic awards decorated the shelves. Tons of books, huge and small, filled the book case. Also there was a pink poster of horses running through a field hanging on the wall above her bed. The lamp on her bedside table was pink with black poka dots.

While my side of the room, however, at the moment sported plain old cream colored walls, a regular bed with white sheets, a bed side table, plain lamp, and a set of shelves that were caked in dust. I officially decided that I would ask my Aunt to send me a few decorating magazines ASAP.

"So, how are you feeling?" Emily asked as I began putting my dorky clothes in my closet.

"Okay, I guess." I replied.

"It's not all that bad, you'll see. Things will become easier and better as time goes by." Emily said, smiling a bit.

"How long have you been here?" I asked, my curiosity getting the better of me.

"About five months now." She replied, shrugging her shoulders. "Did your parents freak when you got Markded?" she asked.

"Totally. Didn't yours?"

"Yeah they did. You see, they're big believers in the People Of The Faith." Emily began, but I cut her off.

"Say no more. I totally understand, my parents are the same way."

"Yeah, humans suck, but I'm _way_ better with this place. I mean, I like the classes here – especially the Equestrian Studies. I love horses. Oh, and I even like the uniforms here too. They're not really uniforms cuz we can wear what we want as long as we wear our class symbols. Oh shoot! Speaking of school uniforms, you _really_ need to change! Not because what you're wearing is hideous, but because dinner is in a few minutes. Neferet had some clothes delivered here a little while ago before you got here. Don't worry about it not being the right sizes, they always know what size you're going to be before you even get here. It's weird." Emily explained.

She jumped up, went into the closet, took out a black v-neck t-shirt, a black sweater, and a pair of ripped jeans, then tossed them across the room to me. The light from the table lamp caught on a streak of silver embroidery that was on the breast of the sweater. I moved the sweater and held it out in front of me so that I could see it better. The silver embroidery was in the shape of a spiral that glittered around and around in a delicate circle.

"It's our sign," Emily explained. She then went into a long speech about the third former's sign and what it signified. She also explained more about the school uniforms, that we could wear whatever we wanted as long as we had something with our class symbol on it. And it was only after she explained it all to me that I actually really looked at what Emily was wearing.

She was dressed in a very low cut v-neck shirt, with the third former symbol over her heart. She was wearing a short skirt and what I guessed to be six inch heeled shoes.

I slipped into the bathroom which was in between the two closets and began to get changed. I pulled my white blouse off and put on the black T-shirt and over it the silk knit sweater that, on closer inspection, was a deep shade of purple with little black plaid lines going through it. And I changed from my ugly blue knee length skirt to a set of regular jeans. It actually felt really good to get out of the clothes that my parents picked out for me.

Once I finished changing, Emily and I raced off to the dining hall. The dining hall was warm and friendly with a weird mixture of bricks and black rocks as the exterior of the building. The inside was filled with several picnic like tables that had padded seats and backs. The ceiling was low and the rear wall was made up of windows, like the one at the end of the hallway in the dorm house, and a glass door in the center. Heavy burgundy velvet drapes were pulled open so that I could see outside to a beautiful little courtyard with some exotic flowers. The whole dining hall was lit up with antique gaslight too.

Most of the tables were already filled with eating and talking kids. But there was one table in particular that no one sat at. That table was filled with fruit, cheese, and meats. Next to all the food there was a large silver goblet filled with a red liquid. When I asked Emily about it, she explained to me that it was an offering to Nyx.

Emily led me to the side of the room that had the typical cafeteria servers handing out food from behind buffet-style glass things. Most of the kids were already eating, so the line was short, and as Emily and I got up to the food a feeling of relief filled me. The food wasn't what I expected it to be! Instead of blood and raw meat, there was spaghetti, salad, and garlic bread!

I choose to get a cup of tea with my spaghetti, and then followed Emily to a table where about twenty other girls were sitting.

"Hey guys, meet my new roommate, Tori Willow." Emily said as she introduced me.

"Hello Tori, and welcome to the House of Night." One of the girls said as she smiled at me. She was a tiny blonde and darn near perfect. She reminded me of a younger looking version of Sarah Jessica Parker. Her smile was warm, but she was clearly forcing herself to smile. She was wearing a dark purple blouse with a symbol of three silver goddess-like women, one of them was holding sissors, over her heart. Along with the blouse, she was wearing a _very_ short pleated black skirt, black tights that had silver sparkles in them, and knee-high black boots. "I'm Aphrodite." She continued.

"Hello Aphrodite." I said as I plastered a smile on my face.

"Hi, I'm Enyo," A different girl said. She was tall, and her long blonde hair was flowing in locks over her shoulders. But on closer inspection of her eyebrows I guessed that she was probably as much of a natural blonde as I am. She was dressed almost identical to Aphrodite, except she wasn't wearing any tights under her extremely short dark blue skirt. Instead of tights, she was wearing knee-high socks along with converse shoes. And instead of a purple blouse like Aphrodite's, she was wearing a navy blue one with the same goddess-looking symbol over where her heart should be.

"Hi," I said.

"I'm Deino," said another girl. She had gorgeous coffee-with-lots-of-cream skin and impossibly long hair that probably never had the nerve to nap up on her for an instant, no matter the humidity. She was dressed in a black tank-top with the same symbol Aphrodite and Enyo had over her heart, short jean shorts, and two inch heeled shoes.

"Hello," I said once more. And slowly everyone introduced themselves to me. I noticed that the majority of them all had the same symbol that Aphrodite, Enyo, and Deino had on. Others had a symbol of a carriage being pulled along with several sparkling stars. Emily and I were the only third formers at this table.

"Well don't just stand there. Take a seat." Emily said, she had already taken her seat at the table. I sat down next to her, feeling a little awkward as I did.

"So, what do you think of your new home?" Deino asked.

"Well the dorms seem nice. I mean, it's all really pretty here." I babbled, not really knowing how I felt about my new home. This place didn't feel like home yet, actually the place that I called "home" never really felt like home either.

"Oh, come on! It's better than "nice" or "really pretty" here; it's amazing." Enyo said as she cut her eyes sideways at me.

"Oh…well, that's good to hear."

Aphrodite laughed, the sound was totally unpleasant – almost a sneer – and it made the little hairs on my neck stand up.

"It's amazing here mostly because of me and my Dark Daughters." She said after laughing.

I didn't have a clue how to respond to that very snoody, stuck-up piece of information. My new impression of Aphrodite was that she was a slutty Ms. Thinks-she's-all-that. I couldn't stand people like that at my old school, and since I was realizing that this school was a lot like any other, I highly doubted that I would like people like that here. I might be starting a new life, but that didn't mean that my likes and dislikes had changed.

"Yeah, this school is cool because we're cool." A different girl named Pempherdo chimed in.

I decided it was best to keep quiet, so I just nodded my agreement.

The rest of dinner didn't get better for me. Sure they stopped talking to me after awhile, but the conversations they had between themselves were the usual teen gossip. They talked total trash about some group of kids they had dubbed the "Nerd Herd". I did glance over at the table with those kids. It was only the four kids sitting at that table. Two had blond hair, another was black with black hair, and then there was a guy sitting at that table who also had black hair. They didn't look nearly as bad as the other girls were saying they were.

I ate dinner as quickly as I could and then excused myself from the table. I walked back to the dorm by myself, not that I minded. I had already decided that I would watch what I said around Emily, since she gossiped about as much as the other girls did, and the things she said weren't very nice.

Walking over to my bland side of the room that was dramatically overshadowed by all the pink from Emily's side, I changed into my pajamas and then flopped myself down on the bed. Looking up at the ceiling, I wondered where my first day (Night?) at school would take me tomorrow. I stared at the ceiling for a long while before drifting off to sleep.


	3. Choose Your Side, Don't Cross The Line

Chapter Three – Choose Your Side And Don't Cross The Line

Ok so I didn't really expect that I would fall asleep as quickly as I did. But once I fell asleep, I had this bizarre dream. It wasn't a nightmare, but it was weird.

I dreamt that I was standing on top of this mountain as the aurora borealis lights danced across the sky. Then small shadows of animals danced among the lights. I could see eagles and hawks along with ravens and canaries soar in between the lights. I could also see horses, bears, foxes, wolves, moose, deer, buffalo, snakes, and every kind of cat dance with the lights.

Then suddenly a beautiful looking woman appeared in the sky. She was dressed in a white fringed dress that was covered in dancing symbols; it was almost like her dress was alive on her! She had long straight hair that was so black that it looked like there were small blue and purple highlights in it. She reminded me of the stained glass window and marble statue at the House of Night. That's when the realization hit me.

"Nyx!" I called out.

"Yes Daughter." The Goddess said as she gave me a warm smile. I didn't know if I should bow down before her or anything like that. How did the vampyres worship her? As if reading my thoughts she replied, "You need not do anything child. Just listen to my wisdom and accept my gift."

I stared blankly at her. The goddess was going to give me a gift? Why? I'm lowly Victoria – um, Tori Willow! The girl who's always in trouble at school for daydreaming and not paying attention. The girl who fights with her parents. The girl who was just Marked as a vampyre fledgling. I was an outcast of society. Why would the goddess Nyx give me any kind of gift?

"Good and Evil are struggling to find balance. You are special, remember that always, no matter what others may say. Within you there is a true connection to nature, that is my gift to you. Use it wisely and well in the days that follow. This gift will help you help those who will matter most to you in the end." The Goddess spoke as she lifted her arms up into the air. Suddenly, as if on her command, the lights and all of the animals dancing on them were wrapping themselves around me! The lights were becoming a warm, gentle, second layer of skin on me. Unknowingly, I stretched myself out into a cross like position as the lights continued to weave themselves tighter around me.

* * *

I jolted awake, breathing very heavily as I did so. I was sitting upright in my bed, my sheets had been thrown off of me.

"Hey there sleepy butt!" Emily said as she gave me an elfish smile. "Bad dream?" She asked in a sing-song tone.

"Sort of." I replied, bringing my breathing back under control.

"You'll get over it." She shrugged as she threw my sheets back at me. Sighing to myself, I made my bed then changed out of my pajamas and into regular clothes. Today I decided to wear a deep purple T-shirt, with the third former symbol over the Heart, and long skinny jeans along with converse shoes.

As I got dressed, my mind began to process my strange dream. Was there something in the spaghetti last night or did the dream actually mean something? I didn't feel any different, so I guess it was safe to say that I wasn't given an amazing power at all.

After getting changed, I walked out of the bathroom and back over to my side of the room. That's when I noticed the paper sitting on my night stand.

"One of the Vampyres slid it through the door. We don't have any classes together, so I can't hold your hand today." Emily said, realizing that I was staring at it, as she brushed her hair.

"I don't need you to hold my hand!" I shot back defensively at her, feeling my face go a little red for both embarrassment and anger.

"Whatever." She replied, shrugging her shoulders as she moved on to doing her make-up.

I opened the envelope and took out the thin sheet of expensive paper inside. At the top of the paper, printed in bold letters was: "**Tori Willow: Entering Third** **Former**" as well as the date, which was three days before the Tracker had Marked me!

* * *

1st Hour - Vampyre Sociology 101. Rm. 215. Prof. Neferet

2nd Hour - Drama 101. Preforming Arts Center. Prof. Nolan

OR

Sketching 101. Rm. 312. Prof. Doner

OR

Intro to Music. Rm. 314. Prof. Vento 

3rd Hour – Lit 101. Rm. 214. Prof. Penthesilea 

4th Hour – Fencing. Gymnasium. Prof. D. Lankford

**LUNCH BREAK**

5th Hour – Tae Kwan Do. Gymnasium. Prof. D. Lankford

6th Hour – Intro to Equestrian Studies. Field House. Prof. Lenobia. 

At the very bottom of the page, in a cool style of script was written: "Your mentor shall be Professor Lenobia."

* * *

"No Math? No Science? No History?" I asked stupidly, overwhelmed by the schedule.

"Nope! What use are those stupid human subjects to us anyways?" Emily replied airily. "Although next semester we'll have to take Economics, but I hear that it isn't too bad."

"Fencing? Tae Kwan Do? Equestrian Studies? There isn't much academic material is there?" I asked.

"They like to keep us in shape here. They want us to be healthy so that our bodies are as strong as possible, because if you start getting weak or _fat_ or sick, that's the first sign that your body is rejecting the Change." She explained, putting a bit of emphasis on the word "fat" and glancing at me as she said it.

"And then you die…" I mumbled quietly.

"Yep! And then you die." She agreed. "Anyways, why are you so worried about there being so little academic material? You're not a nerd, right? Because I am _so_ not rooming with some damned nerd!"

"No, I'm not a nerd. I was just asking." I replied.

"Ok then. So what elective will you be taking?" She questioned.

"Sketching 101." I replied.

"Wha-?" She asked suddenly as though she didn't hear me the first time. "Sketching 101? That's _such_ a loser class! Take Drama, it's popular and everyone loves people who can act."

"No thanks. I happen to like art. And I can't act for jack sh!t." I said slyly. I was starting to like Emily and her annoying snobby attitude less and less.

"What about music then? It's not nearly as cool and popular as drama, but it's still better than _sketching_." She suggested, saying the word with great and obvious disgust.

"That would be great if I could sing or play anything that resembled an instrument. But I can't, so I'm _not_ going to take music." I replied, starting to become irritated.

"Fine. Take stupid art. I'm _so_ not helping you when you get teased." She replied, turning back to her make-up.

I left the dorm room early, a few minutes before Emily. I needed a break from her and her Ms. Popularity attitude. As I walked down the stairs, two long-haired black and white cats sprinted down the steps in front of me, almost causing me to trip and fall down the stairs. Good thing I didn't though, it would have sucked to fall down the stairs and completely embarrass myself on my first day of vamp high school.

I returned the few hellos I was getting as I walked through the living room and into a smaller room off to the side. The room had four refrigerators, a big sink, two microwaves, lots of cabinets, and a few pretty white wooden tables sat in the middle of it – kind of like a regular kitchen. Walking around the kitchen, I began looking for breakfast. In the bottom cabinets there were several large boxes of cereal such as Cinnamon Toast Crunch, Frosted Flakes, Froot Loops, Lucky Charms, and many other brands. I poured myself a bowl of Frosted Flakes and sat down at one of the white tables.

The kitchen and living room were extremely crowded with girls eating and talking and hurrying around. As I ate breakfast at one of the less crowded white tables, I held my schedule out in front of me; trying my best to memorize the order, the rooms, and the teachers names.

Once I had slurped up the last spoon full of cereal, I walked over to the sink, rinsed off my dishes and stuff them into one of the five dishwashers. Afterwards, I hurried outside into the darkness of a beautiful fall evening. I will admit that even though my body told me it was normal, I just couldn't get over how weird it was going to school at night.

I followed the flow of students through one of the thick wooden doors that led to the main building where all of my classes would be held. I walked down a long hallway, around the corner to the left and up a flight of stairs to where most of the other third formers were. My first class, Vampyre Sociology 101, was in room 215 and Neferet taught that class.

Walking into the room and looking around, I didn't know where to sit. Were there assigned seats? What should I do?

Before I could figure out where to sit, the bell rang and Neferet swept into the room. Tonight she was wearing a long black skirt that went down to her knees, stiletto boots, and a deep purple silk sweater. Over her left breast, embroidered in silver, was the image of a goddess with her arms upraised, hands cupping a crescent moon. Her auburn hair was pulled back into a thick braid. The series of delicate wavelike tattoos that framed her face made her look like a warrior priestess. She smiled out at the whole class before turning her attention to me.

"Tori, welcome to your first Vampyre Sociology class. Please take your seat next to Damien Maslin." She said as she pointed her hand gracefully towards an empty seat next to a brown haired third former who had deer-like brown eyes. I recognized him as one of the four who were sitting at the "Nerd Herd" table that Aphrodite, Pempherdo, Deino, Enyo, and Emily had talked about the other night.

"Good evening class!" Neferet continued as I took my seat. "I've been looking forward to beginning this unit. Delving into the rich sociology of the Greek is one subject that I've found most students seriously enjoy." Then she gestured to me. "It is excellent timing that Tori Willow has joined us today. I expect all students to welcome her as many others have you. Damien, would you please get Tori a textbook? Her cabinet is above yours. While you explain our locker system to Tori I want the rest of you to journal about what preconceived impressions you have of the ancient Greek vampyres."

The typical paper rustling commenced while Damien led me to the back of the classroom where there was a wall of cabinets. He opened the one that had the number "13" in silver on it. The funny thing is that the number 13 is considered to be an unlucky number to many people, but I've always found it to be my lucky one. The cabinet contained neat, wide shelves filled with an array of textbooks and other school supplies.

"Here at the House of Night there aren't lockers, like at regular schools. Here, first hour is our homeroom and we each have a cabinet of our own. The room will always be open, so you can come back here to get books and whatever else you might need. Your cabinet is just like your locker. Here's the sociology book." Damien explained.

He handed me a thick leather book with the silhouette of a goddess stamped on the front of it along with the title, Vampyre Sociology 101. I grabbed a notebook and a couple of pencils. When I shut the cabinet door I hesitated for a moment.

"Isn't there a lock or something?"

"No," Damien lowered his voice. "No one needs locks here. If someone steals something, the vamps know it. I don't even want to know what would happen to someone stupid enough to do that."

I sat back down in my seat and began writing about the only things I knew about the Greek vampyres. It wasn't like in my old school we ever talked about what the vampyres did in history, so it was very hard for me to write anything down. But what I did know about them was that they were the first vampyres who worshiped Nyx, that was about it.

"So, what do we know about the Greek vampyres? Who would like to share what they know first?" Neferet asked after waiting a few minutes for us to write down what we wanted. I was one of the few who raised their hands. I was beginning a new life, I might as well try to stay focused on my school work and create better habits for myself. "Tori Willow?"

"That the Greek vampyres were the very first vampyres who worshiped Nyx." I replied, feeling a little dumb and actually regretting saying anything at all. I mean, come on! _Everyone_ knew that whether they were a vampyre or not!

"That is correct! I'm always happy to see a new fledgling who knows something!" Neferet said smiling. "Now please turn to chapter seven of our textbooks so that we may dig deeper into their history."

From there we all turned to chapter seven of our text books and Neferet launched into one of the coolest lectures I'd ever heard. It was hard for even me not to daydream, and that's saying something. I had no idea that an hour had passed; the ringing bell was a total surprise. I shoved my sociology book back into my cabinet, only to see that there was a case of expensive looking paints, pencils, and pens along with a rather thick sketch pad. How on earth did the vampyres know that I was going to take sketching as my elective?

Deciding that I didn't want to be late on my first day, I grabbed my supplies and then raced off to room 312. In the hallway, I saw Damien walking to his next class, and decided that I should at the very least thank him for helping me this morning.

"Damien!" I called. Upon hearing his name, Damien turned to my direction as I wormed my way through the crowded hallway. "Hey, look, I wanted to thank you for explaining the cabinet thing to me."

"Oh! That's ok, no need to thank me. It's ok, really." He replied with a surprised smile. How could Emily have said all those nasty things about him yesterday at dinner? He seemed really nice!

"No, really, thanks. It really means a lot to me." I insisted. "Um…I don't think I've properly introduced myself. I'm Tori." I said, holding my hand out for him to shake.

"Damien." He replied, gripping my forearm just as Neferet had done.

From there we went our separate ways. I walked up another flight of stairs to get to room 312. Professor Doner was a cool looking teacher. His tattoos framed his face with a pattern of spirals and a lot of different shapes such as squares, triangles, and circles. Professor Doner didn't ooze power like Neferet did, instead he oozed creativity.

"Tori, welcome to sketching. Have a seat anywhere."

I said hi and sat in an empty seat up at the front of the room next to a dark charcoal haired third former. His uniform, just like his hair, was a total mess. He was wearing an unbuttoned navy blue jacket, an untucked white dress shirt, and a completely undone black tie that had the third former symbol on it.

"Hello," I said to him, trying to be friendly. "I'm Tori."

"Alex Parker." He replied lazily not even bothering to look at me.

"Today we're going to begin landscapes! Now there is a bin of pictures in the back, everyone is to go up one at a time and choose one that calls out to you! I don't want to see anyone pick any overly easy ones, it's always good to challenge yourselves.

Sketching 101 was just about the coolest art class that I had ever taken. I became immensely lost in my artwork and didn't even notice that an hour of my life was gone; only when the bell rang did I realize how much time had actually passed.

I made my way off to Lit 101, which was taught by Prof. Penthesilea. I ended up sitting next to Damien and a blonde countrified tornado, who I later found out was Stevie Rae Johnson.

Lit class was an interesting experience. The classroom itself was filled with several posters and paintings which covered every bit of wall space. Several wind chimes and crystals hung from the ceiling and filled the atmosphere with a peaceful air.

"Good evening class," Prof. Penthesilea began as she swept into the room. "We are going to begin our study of the deliciously melodramatic events of love in our next piece of literature, William Shakespeare's _Romeo and Juliet_. It is excellent timing for Tori to join be joining us. Now let's get started, the last person in each row will get the books from the long cabinet in the back of the room."

Once the books had been handed out, Prof. Penthesilea started to read Act One aloud to us. Her voice mesmerized me, and pulled me into the reading.

After awhile I stole a moment to look about the classroom and at the other kids while Prof. Penthesilea read. There were about fifteen students, including me, which seemed t be the average amount in my other classes too. All of us were listening to the reading, except for a redhead, freckled faced kid, who was sound asleep with his head down on his arms.

It wasn't until the bell was about to ring and Prof. Penthesilea had assigned the next chapter as homework, and then told us we could talk quietly amongst ourselves, that she noticed the sleeping kid named Elliott.

While Elliott was lectured to by Prof. Penthesilea, I attempted to join Damian and the other girl in a conversation.

"What's the deal with him?" I asked about Elliott, trying to start a conversation. I wanted to meet as many new people as possible, make friends, and find my place within my new life.

"Ugh! Don't get me started about that jerk!" The blonde girl replied instantly, not bothering to hide her dislike for the kid.

"Agreed." Damian replied. "I don't think you two know each other yet, do you?" He asked after a second of thought, and when I shook my head no he continued with "Tori this is Steve Rae, by the way."

The blonde, realizing that I was new replied with a much friendlier tone, "I'm Steve Rae by the way. Welcome to the House of Night."

"Thanks." I replied. '_These are the people Aphrodite and her friends were talking trash about, but they don't seem that bad_' I thought to myself as I went to Fencing with Damian, it turned out that we also had fencing together.

Fencing was totally cool, which surprised me since I was expecting it to be more of a guy sport. But it actually is one of the few sports where men and woman can compete equally. Dragon, who taught the class, had partnered me up with Damien to teach me the drills and opening maneuvers. I quickly learned that there was a lot more to fencing than just swinging the foil around, it was a lot of physical work with all the stances and lunging!

The class took showers afterwards and then the bell for Lunch rang. I raced off to lunch since all that fencing stuff had made me extremely hungry. Lunch today was a huge build-your-own-salad-buffet, which pleased me since I was vegetarian.

I pilled my plate high with lettuce, carrots, and cucumbers then sulked off to Emily's table where her nasty friends sat. I promised myself that as soon as I made friends with other people that I would go sit with them instead. It was obvious that I didn't share interests or opinions with the Dark Daughters. And it was just as obvious that I was walking into a bad moment.

"I can't believe he said that to me! ME! Of all people he said it to me!" Aphrodite sobbed dramatically as Emily, Enyo, Deino, and the other Dark Daughters hung to her every word. They were so wrapped up in her babble that they didn't even notice me sit down.

"That's just horrible!" Enyo said, trying to comfort Aphrodite.

"Damn right." Deino agreed.

"Who does he think he is!" Inputted Emily, earning a few nods of agreement from the other members of the Dark Daughters.

"What do you think Tori" Enyo asked, finally acknowledging that I was sitting there. I took my time to finish chewing my mouthful of lettuce and swallowed.

"Maybe you two just need a break, you know? It might be better for you two if you saw other people." I finally answered. The whole "Boyfriend-broke-up-with-me-and-now-my-life-is-over" act was extremely old.

Someone might as well as shot me right then and then and there, since it was like I had spoken some sort of blasphemy. Emily kicked my foot so hard that I had to bite my lower lip to prevent myself fro crying out.

"What?" Aphrodite asked dangerously, shedding the sobbing act instantly and replacing it with one of pure anger.

"Well I just thought-" I started, trying to correct the cardinal sin I had just committed.

"Look, here's the deal, Tori. I'm _it_ here. Things go _my_ way. You want to get along here, then you'd best remember that. If you don't, you'll be in for a world of shit." Aphrodite practically snarled.

Now she was really starting to piss me off. "Look," I started, "I just got here. I'm not looking for trouble, and I really don't give a damn who you think you are. I don't take orders from you."

Her eyes, along with everyone else's, narrowed at me. Not that I really cared at this point. Without saying another word to any of them I picked up my tray, and started walking towards a different table. But as I was walking, just as all thoughts come to mind when you're nervous, I started to wonder what would happen if they didn't want me to sit with them. What if no one wanted me here?

Giving my head a mental shake I pushed those thoughts aside as I finally arrived at the table.

"Um…," I started, "Is this seat taken, uh I mean is it alright if I sit with you guys?"

Damien and Steve Rae, along with two other girls, didn't even hesitate.

"Sure." They all said in unison, welcoming me to the table.

**

* * *

**

Authors Note: Sorry I haven't updated in so long! I just haven't found the time to write! But I hope I've made it up to everyone by making this chapter extra long. XD


	4. Affinity

Chapter Four – Affinity 

As I sat down at my new seat, I couldn't help but notice that they had welcomed me rather quickly.

"Introductions first y'all." Stevie Rae spoke first, getting right down to business. "You know Damien and I, but this is Erin Bates," she pointed to the ridiculously pretty blonde sitting to my right. "Erin is the 'the pretty one.' She's also funny and smart and has more shoes than anyone I've ever known."

Erin smiled and said a quick "Hi."

"This is Shaunee Cole, Erin's roommate. Shaunee is our drama queen. She's also Erin's Twin, well they're not actually related by blood but they are freakishly alike. Kinda like they were separated at birth or something." Stevie Rae finished up.

"So what's the scoop on you?" Shaunee asked.

"I'm Tori Willow and I just arrived here yesterday…um yesternight?" I paused to semi correct myself. "My horrible roommate is Emily Nell and we don't exactly see eye to eye." I continued before I was interrupted. At the mention of Emily's name Stevie Rae choked a bit on her mouthful of salad and Damien's jaw dropped.

"Emily Nell? You mean the only third former Dark Daughter?" Shaunee asked. I nodded my agreement as I bit into a forkful of tomato. "You must have horrible luck to be paired with that hag from hell. Uck, I can't stand the girl personally."

I couldn't help but agree. I mean, sure I didn't know her very well, but she's been so stuck up and rude to me since I arrived here. And it was good and a little comforting to hear that other people had the same opinions about the Dark Daughters that I did.

"We call the Dark Daughters 'Hags from Hell' because…well they are." Erin explained. "They're horrible to everyone here, especially that Aphrodite."

"Well she most certainly isn't very nice, that's for sure." Stevie Rae muttered.

"Yeah and it's such a shame to see so many of the Dark Sons being used by her." Damien commented.

"Uh-huh, it's not like they bat for your team, but it is truly a crime and a shame that such seriously hot young lads get sucked in-"

"And she does mean that literally," Erin interjected.

"By hags from hell," concluded Shaunee.

"They may not 'bat for my team' but she does go through boys like you two go through shoes." Damien muttered. "But anyways, I digress, what the Dark Daughters really are is a group of stuck-up bitches who get off on lording power over everyone else. They want everyone to follow them, to conform to their freaky ideas of what it means to become a vamp. Most of all, they hate humans, and if you don't feel the same they don't want shit to do with you."

"Except give you a hard time." Stevie Rae added. Something in her voice hinted that she had firsthand knowledge about the "hard time" part.

"Don't let them scare you, though," Shaunee said. "Just watch your back around them and don't give them any reasons to hate you."

The bell rang then, signaling the conclusion of lunch. The one thing about lunch at any school I've ever eaten at is it's over too soon.

"Nice meeting you guys. I'll see you all at dinner." I said as I scrambled to get myself together and go off to my next class.

"Okay, see ya," Stevie Rae replied.

"It was really nice to meet you, Tori." Damien said before walking off.

"Bye!" Erin and Shaunee said in perfect unison.

* * *

Tae Kwan Do with the Dragon was interesting, especially since I had it with Stevie Rae. And I will admit that she can kick butt.

The class began with Dragon leading us in a set a drills, similar to Fencing. It actually felt good to be taking part in so much physical activities during my school day, which was odd since I never liked gym in my old school.

Eventually we broke off into pairs and practiced against each other, using only the drills that we had gone over in the beginning of class. As we did so Dragon walked across the room to observe, stopping every so often to correct students.

"So what do you have sixth hour?" Stevie Rae asked as we walked into the locker room along with the rest of the class once we were dismissed.

"Intro to Equestrian Studies with my mentor Professor Lenobia." I replied.

"Then you'll defiantly like that class." She replied with an assuring smile.

* * *

Intro to Equestrian Studies was held in the Field House. It was a long, low brick building over by the south wall, attached to a huge indoor riding area. The whole place had that sawdust and horse smell that mixed to form a somewhat pleasant scent, even though part of that "pleasant" scent was horse poop.

I stood with a small group of kids just inside the corral. There were only about ten of us, and we were all third formers. I scanned the faces of my fellow classmates, looking for someone familiar, but it I only spotted Alex slouching against the wall looking like he had better things to do than be here.

The sound of hooves drew my attention from Alex and I looked up in time to see a magnificent black mare pounding into the corral at full gallop. She slid to a stop a couple feet in front of the group. The mare's rider dismounted gracefully. She had thick hair that reached to her waist and was so blond it was almost white, and eyes that were a weird shade of slate gray. Her tattoo was an intricate series of knots entwined around her face – within the sapphire design I could see mini sized horses, hidden by the knots.

"Good evening. I am Lenobia, and _this_," she pointed at the mare and gave the group a contemptuous look before finishing the sentence, "is a horse." Her voice rang against the walls.

And suddenly a new voice rang out against the walls, as if replying to Professor Lenobia's words. I froze with shock at the words, not expecting anyone else to speak while a teacher was.

"No, I'm a monkey! Of course I'm a horse, what else would I be?"

I quickly stole a glance behind me to see which idiot in the class had spoken, but no one had, their eyes were glued to Professor Lenobia. In fact it was like I was the only one who heard the voice. Realizing that I was missing her introduction speech, I pushed the voice from my thoughts and turned my attention back to her.

"-Less than half of you will last the semester, and less than half of those who last will actually develop into decent equestrians. Are there any questions?" She didn't pause long enough for anyone to ask anything. "Good! Then follow me and we'll begin."

She turned and marched back into the stable and the group followed until we came to a halt in front of a row of empty stalls. Outside of them were pitchforks and wheelbarrows.

"Horses are not big dogs. Nor are they a little girls's romanticized dream image of a perfect best friend who will always understand you." A few girls standing beside me fidgeted guiltily and Professor Lenobia eyed them for a brief moment before continuing. "Horses are work. Horses take dedication, intelligence, and time. We'll begin with the work part. In the track room down this hall you'll find mucking boots. Choose a pair quickly, and then grab a pair of gloves. Then each of you will take your own stall and get busy cleaning out the stalls. The manure goes in the wheel barrows and once your wheelbarrow is full you can dump it in the compost area on the wall side of the stables. You have fifty minutes, I'll be back in forty-five to inspect your stalls. You may commence, now."

And we commenced.

I grabbed the mucking boots, which were big rubber galoshes – really ugly, but they did cover my jeans all the way up to my knees, and a pair of gloves and got to work. I know it's weird, it even surprised me, but I didn't mind cleaning out my stall. It was pretty obvious that these stalls were cleaned out like every other instant of the day, but I still didn't mind pitch forking up horse poop. There was also music playing through excellent loudspeakers – a mix CD of several country hits. So the music also took my mind off of the work a bit as well. It didn't seem that hardly any time had passed when I was dumping the wheelbarrow and then filling it with clean sawdust. I was just smoothing it around the stall when I got that prickly feeling that someone was watching me.

"Good job, Tori."

I jumped out of my skin a bit and whirled around to see Professor Lenobia standing just outside my stall. In one hand she held a bit, soft curry brush. In the other she was holding the lead rope of a doe-eyed roan mare.

"Have you done this before?" Professor Lenobia asked.

"No Professor Lenobia." I replied.

"Lenobia will do. The name I chose in honor of the ancient vampyre queen needs no other title."

"Oh." I replied stupidly, not really sure what to say.

"Now, meet Persephone. You've just cleaned her stall." Lenobia nodded her head at the mare beside her. Persephone came into the stall and walked straight up to me, sticking her muzzle in my face, and then I heard another voice, this time happier, and a bit more feminine, not nearly as sarcastic as the other voice had been though.

"You did a good job, thanks for cleaning."

"Lenobia, did you say something just now?" I asked, unsure.

"No, why?" She replied.

"Um…Never mind then, I just thought I heard you say something." I replied. If no one else was hearing these voices, was I going crazy? Great, that was the last thing I needed on my first day of vamp high, to lose my mind. I decided that it would be better if I didn't mention them again.

Lenobia hesitated before speaking again. "There are only about five minutes left before the bell rings for school to end, so it is not necessary that you stay as part of today's class, but if you'd like, I believe you have earned the privilege of brushing Persephone."

"No problem, I'll stay." I replied a bit surprised.

"Excellent. You can return the brush to the tack room when you've finished." Lenobia handed me the brush and then turned to leave the stall, but then paused and turned around. "Also, as your mentor, I want you to know that if there is anything you need, anything you might want to talk about just let me know. I'm always here in the Field House from sunset to dawn." And with that, she left me alone in the stall with Persephone.

"Hi there, Persephone, you pretty girl." I said as I got to work brushing.

"Oh, that feels good!" I heard the voice say again. I froze for a moment as I strained my ears to hear more, hoping to find the source of the voice. "Something wrong?" It asked. "Why'd you stop?"

And then it hit me, confused me, and shocked me as I realized that the voices I was hearing was coming from the horses. But I had to be sure…

"Um…Did you say something Persephone?" I asked, unsure of myself and feeling rather foolish.

"Yeah, why'd you stop? That felt good." The voice, that I now knew belong to Persephone, responded. I stood there stunned, gawking like a fool. Eventually I swallowed down my shock just long enough to ask another question and get back to brushing.

"So do all horses talk?" I asked, wondering if this was going to be a regular thing in my new vampyre life.

"Yeah we all do, you humans just don't listen." Persephone replied. "Wait, do you understand me?" She suddenly asked in surprise, as if just realizing herself that we were actually having a real conversation.

"Yeah." I replied slowly, nodding my head a little.

"Wow you must be a great listener or something! I've never met another human who understands what I say!" She replied, obviously impressed. At the edge of my attention I vaguely heard other voices, voices that I knew belonged to the other horses. As I began to focus on them the voices became clearer. Conversations rang throughout the stables. And the goddesse's voice echoed in the back of my head…

"_Within you there is a true connection to nature, that is my gift to you."_

This was all overwhelming and I didn't really know what to make of it all. In the end I decided that I should ask Lenobia if…if _this_ was normal for freshly marked vampyres. I muttered a quick good bye to Persephone then started to look for Lenobia . It took me about twelve minutes to find my mentor, I probably would've found her sooner, but I ended up hopelessly lost in the Field House as I searched for her office or wherever I thought she would be. I ended up right back where I started though, in the stables.

"Hello there Tori." Lenobia said, without looking away from the black mare she was brushing. "You wanted to see me about something?"

"Um…," I stalled for a moment, trying to put my thoughts into actual words. "Lenobia, has there ever been a vampyre or vampyre fledgling who could…uh, speak to animals?" I asked, feeling embarrassed, foolish, and a little worried. What if it was all in my head? What if I was actually crazy?

Lenobia, instead of responding to my questions, stopped brushing the mare, and looked at me for a long moment. Her slate eyes scanned over me for what felt like forever before she finally replied.

"Come, let us go ask Neferet about the matter."

* * *

"If what you say is the truth, then the Goddess has given you a great gift," Neferet spoke once I finished explaining my conversation with Persephone, the voices I heard before that, and even last night's dream. "There have been very few who have been given the tong of animals. This is an excellent sign for you Tori. Nyx must have a special plan for you, the Goddess would not have granted you such a special affinity seen so rarely if she did not see your potential."

There was a moment of silence as I thought over her words.

"B-but…but why me? I'm nothing special, really. I-" I began to say before Neferet waved away my useless babble.

"The Goddess would not have granted you special powers on a whim. Use them carefully, wait for their purpose to become clear to you, and make Nyx look down and smile upon you." And as I still looked helplessly lost and confused, she continued. "Do not fret, you'll understand this more as you continue to Change."

'_Right, but that's only __**if**__ I actually make the change though.'_ I couldn't help but think silently to myself, but instead of displaying my own fears, I swallowed them down and nodded my head in agreement.

"Tori, dinner will be starting in about two hours. My advice is that you return to your dorm and finish your homework. Relax for a while as you sort this all out, and don't worry, I know you will." Lenobia said as she placed a comforting hand on my shoulder.

"Ok." I replied. And with that Neferet dismissed me. I stood up from my seat at Neferet's desk and headed towards the door, but not before a large orange ball of fur ran into the room and without a sound, hurled itself onto Neferet's desk and then into her arms. "There certainly are a lot of cats here" I commented.

"Yes, there are. Cats have always been closely allied with vampyres." Neferet muttered as she stroked the orange cat. I actually knew that, but decided to not speak the thought aloud. "Tori, meet Skylar. He's usually prowling around here waiting to launch himself at me."

"He's the biggest cat I've ever seen," I said, reaching my hand out, letting him sniff me.

"Who do you think you're calling _big_? Look in the mirror lately? You humans are the largest creatures I've ever laid eyes on." Skylar replied. I couldn't help but laugh a bit, which earned looks from Neferet and Lenobia.

"Oh yeah? I guess that makes sense for someone so short." I said as I scratched between his ears.

"What did he say?" Lenobia asked.

"He said that I shouldn't call him big since all of us humans are much bigger than him." I replied. Neferet smiled warmly as I translated.

"I can tell he likes you a bit, which is unusual since he usually doesn't like anyone except me. He even keeps the other cats away from this end of campus. He's really a terrible bully." Neferet mentioned.

"I've found that the way a cat feels about a person is usually an excellent gauge by which to measure a person's character." Lenobia added. Neferet nodded in total agreement.

"Do you think that I could have a cat?" I asked, a bit unsure. I also ignored Skylar's rude comment of how no cat would ever want a human like me.

"If one chooses you, you will belong to him or her." Lenobia answered.

"Chooses me?" I asked confused.

"Cat's choose us; we don't own them." Lenobia explained.

"Oh." I replied. Realizing that I had been in the office longer than I really needed to be, I quickly thanked my teachers and left.

It was on my way back to the dorm that I began to wonder what kind of cat would choose me, or even if a cat would ever choose me.


	5. Awkward Moment

Chapter Five: Awkward Moment 

I backtracked through the grounds and then through the dorm house, happy that I recognized where I was and where to go. The large living-room area was pretty much empty except for a few girls who were watching _Extreme Home Makeover_. I walked past them and then straight up the stairs to the second floor. But it wasn't until I got to the door that I hesitated.

It was after school and way too early for dinner, what if Emily was already up in our room? I know that I share a room with the girl, there's no helping that, but right now I'm just too tired to deal with her crap. I hesitated for a minute or two before deciding that it was my room now too and that I had every right to be there as she did. So I opened the door and with a sigh of relief I found that Emily wasn't there for the time being.

I hit the light switch and then walked across the room to where my bed was. I sat down and pulled off my shoes, then took out my Vampyre Sociology 101 text book and began to write my paper on the ancient Greek Vampyres, which didn't take very long. Surprisingly that was the only bit of homework that I had, so with nothing else to do I took out my sketch pad and began drawing random objects around the room.

It was relaxing and helped give me time to think. I thought of what I would say to Emily if she gave me a hard time later on. And then I began to wonder if my parents or Aunt Tanya had called me during the day while I was asleep. Placing the sketchpad down on my little bedside table, I reached over my bed and took out my cell phone. A small disappointed frown flashed across my face when I saw that there were no missed calls or texts waiting for me. If it hadn't been so early in the morning, I would have called or sent a text to Aunt Tanya.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" Emily asked suddenly. I was so deep in thought that I didn't notice that she entered our room.

"What? Just because I didn't agree with Aphrodite there has to be something wrong with me?" I replied.

"There must be since you practically gave up any chance you had of joining the Dark Daughters and being welcomed here." Emily replied.

"I think I can manage to fit in here without the Dark Daughters." I stated. And it was the truth. I was already making new friends and acquaintances. I didn't need Emily or any of the other Dark Daughters to find my place here.

"Well don't bother showing up at the table at dinner or at any other time then. And don't talk to me outside this room, got it? I have an image to keep up and you'll only damage it." She said as she flopped down onto her own bed.

"Whatever." I replied as I picked up my sketch book once more.

Dinner came and went with nothing special happening. I got to know Damien, Stevie Rae, Erin, and Shaunee better. Oh and I also got to meet their cats, Beelzebub, a sleek, silver-gray cat, who choose both Erin and Shaunee, and Cammy, a tabby, who choose Damien. Stevie Rae didn't have a cat yet, but she insisted that she didn't mind waiting for her cat to find her. I didn't tell them about my newly discovered affinity for talking to animals just yet. I decided that I would get to know them better before I trusted them with that kind of information.

* * *

"Rise and shine there sleepy butt." Emily snickered the following morning as I slowly crawled out of bed and picked out my clothes for the day.

"Good evening to you too." I replied. After getting changed, I walked out of the bathroom and back over to my side of the room. Still sitting on my bedside table next to my text book, notebook, and sketchpad was my cell phone. Hesitating slightly I checked it again, and once again I had no messages. "I'm going to breakfast. See you after school or whenever." I said as scooped up my books and headed towards the door.

"Whatever. Just remember what I said last night. I have an image to keep up and I won't allow you to ruin my chances of becoming the next head of the Dark Daughters when I'm in my sixth former year." Emily replied, a hint of evil delight in her voice as she said it.

"Wouldn't even dream of it." I replied before shutting the door behind me. I quickly walked downstairs, poured some cereal, ate breakfast, put my dishes away, and then raced off to Vampyre Sociology 101.

I had a few minutes to chat with Damien before Neferet arrived and class officially began. Class zoomed by tonight, probably because I wasn't nearly as nervous as I was the night before. Tonight's topic of conversation was once again the ancient Greek vampyres. Anyways, class was actually fun and interesting and once again the ringing of the bell totally caught me off guard.

Sketching was also great, but unlike Vampyre Sociology 101, Sketching didn't exactly zoom by. Professor Doner was going into the history and backgrounds of several famous vampyre artists, which was very interesting and all, but the hour defiantly felt like an hour. Actually I began to doodle in my notebook instead of taking down all of the notes. It wasn't until Professor Doner announced our assignment and homework that I actually looked up from my doodle of a poorly sketched spider-man that I actually paid attention to his words.

"Now I've brought in many books of collective art from some of these artists. For the remainder of today's lesson and for homework tonight, I would like for you to choose a piece of artwork from these books and to draw it to the best of your ability." Professor Doner said near the end of second hour. There was the usual sound of screeching chairs as we all stood up from our seats and walked over to his front table where the books were lined up. After flipping through several books, I decided on working with Jean Frederic Bazille's _View of the Village_ painting then headed back to my seat.

"Nice spider-man." Alex commented as he took out his own paints. It was then that I realized that I had left my notebook out and open for the whole world to see. I didn't think that Professor Doner would appreciate me sketching instead of taking down his notes. Also, a nasty little thought came to mind, what if I had written something, like a letter, that was personal and he had read it? Or worse, what if I had left something out in the open in the dorm and Emily read it or saw it? How embarrassing (and horrible)! So I took a mental note to be more careful about leaving my stuff out.

"Oh, Thanks." I replied, feeling my face go just a tad bit red. It was, after all, a very poorly done rough sketch. Trying to start up a friendly conversation I continued on. "So, are you a spidey fan?"

"Kinda, but I personally prefer Batman to all other superheroes." Alex replied. I glanced at his notebook and noticed a much nicer and more detailed sketch of Batman.

"Nice sketch." I said with a small grin.

"Thanks. You know, the name of this class is Sketching 101, and when I signed up I thought it would be more sketching and cartooning than formal art…not that I mind though." Alex mentioned.

"Yeah, good point there," I replied as I put some thought into his statement. "Do they even teach cartooning here?" I asked more to myself than to Alex.

"They do a unit on it, but not until you get into Sketching 102, which is offered to us in our fourth former year." Alex answered.

"Really? Guess that's one reason to look forward to fourth former year then." I commented, earning a grin from Alex.

"Keeps you interested that's for sure." He agreed.

"By the way, I really like what you changed your name to. Alex is such a cool name." I blurted out like an idiot. I mentally slapped myself for that. I had meant to keep up my end of the conversation and say something even slightly insightful. Instead I just happened to say the stupidest thing that popped into my head without thinking twice about it. How stupid could I be?

"Thanks." Alex replied, looking amused. "Tori is rather unique, does it have a special meaning to you?"

"It's the nickname my Aunt gave to me. She always said that Victoria was a real mouthful." I babbled. Why didn't someone just shoot me?

"At least your name has a meaning and reason behind it. Mine just came to me in a dream before I was Marked." Alex replied.

Before I could embarrass myself any further, the bell rang and we were dismissed. Alex, who had already packed up his things, got up and left before me. I wasn't too far behind him, I just scrambled to close my sketchpad and grab my other books. But before Alex left the room, he glanced back at me and something truly bizarre happened. I could feel his eyes reach into my soul. I couldn't look away from him. Everyone around us just seemed to disappear, almost fade away. I slowly ripped my eyes away from his and looked at his face as a whole, keeping the mesmerizing effects of his eyes at bay. I could feel my face going red again as he smiled directly at me. And then he was gone, lost in the sea of people.

In the hallway on my way to Lit class, I thought about my conversation with Alex. I even thought about that weird eye contact thing. He had been looking at me, intensely. There was no denying that much. But why? What kind of interest in me was he showing? I mean, let's face it, I don't know the guy and this was my first real conversation I ever had with him. Did I even want a guy who I barely even knew to like me? I probably shouldn't, but there was something about him as well that caught my attention. Something deep inside of me, that I couldn't name or describe, told me that he held an important piece of myself.


	6. Probing Questions

Chapter Six – Probing Questions 

Besides my odd moment there with Alex, nothing else exciting really happened during the school day. Well, not with people anyways. My guess was that the horses in the field house told all of the cats around campus that I could actually speak to them.

That being said, several cats followed me from class to class (which earned strange looks from the other kids as I walked by). It wasn't even like they had anything important to tell me either, they just complained that their owners weren't cleaning out the litter box often enough or that the TV's were too loud for their ears.

It was annoying and totally embarrassing when Professor Penthesilea told me that the cats were disrupting the class and asked me to nicely tell them to wait for me out in the hallway until class was dismissed. I mean, we weren't doing much in Lit class anyways; we only read the rest of Act II of _Romeo and Juliet_. I failed to see how they were such a big distraction, but I asked them to leave and, complaining loudly as they did so, they did leave. Well, except for a smart few who exited the building and walked around over to the class room window.

* * *

Lit class ended and Fencing came and went, then I was off to lunch. Damian, Steve Rae, Erin, Shaunee asked me about the cats, so I had to explain about my affinity. Steve Rae, Erin, and Shaunee thought it was the coolest ability ever, while Damian, who also thought it was cool, went off into a whole professor act; telling me all about Vampyres in history who also had my affinity and how they impacted the vampyre community.

"Damien," Shaunee said. "Again you are getting on my damn –"

"- last nerve with your unending textbook regurgitation bullshit," Erin finished for her. And I will admit that Damian was speaking in a way that strangely sounded like a textbook.

Damien, looking superior, replied "If you two actually bothered to study every once and again you wouldn't be so clueless about everything."

"Would y'all quit bickering and be nice?" Stevie Rae interrupted as the Twins narrowed their eyes at him and sucked air to begin a new assault.

"Fine." Erin replied.

"Whatever." Shaunee agreed.

"Oh, Tori, we're going to be watching some really old Spider-man movies, the ones with Christopher Reeve, after dinner tonight. If you're up to it, wanna join us?" Stevie Rae asked in her usual Okie twang. "We're going to have some honest to goodness chips and full-fatted onion dip!" She added, hoping that would help secure my being there.

"Sure, sounds great to me." I replied with a smile.

"That's great!" She replied happily.

"Hey Erin, by the way, do you have any clothing or furniture magazines I could borrow?" I asked, turning my attention back to Erin.

"Yeah, sure I do. I can bring them to movie night for you later." Erin replied.

"Why do you need them though?" Shaunee asked.

"Well, I'm tired of just using the clothing supplied here, and I refuse to use the horrible excuse for clothing I brought from home. Also, my side of the room looks very rustic compared to Emily's. I need something to battle the repulsive pink that's assaulting the whole room at the moment." I replied.

"Emily's side of the room is _pink_?" Damian asked in disbelief.

"Yep, _everything_ of hers is pink. But not just any pink, it has to be hot pink. It hurts my eyes after awhile actually." I replied.

"Damn, and here I would've bet money that her room was set up like a medieval torture chamber." Shaunee remarked.

"Cuz you just know she's probably torturing boys in there with her nasty sexy ways." Erin added.

"I know the girl isn't very nice, since she's my roommate and all I can see just how mean she is sometimes, but is she like Aphrodite nasty?" I asked. They had all told me about how horrible Aphrodite was to everyone, but they hadn't given me the scoop on my roommate yet.

"No one's as bad as Aphrodite is." Erin replied.

"But Emily is real close." Shaunee finished.

"She's like a venomous spider," Damien commented. "She goes around and gossips about nearly everyone, so be careful what you tell her. She hasn't been here very long, but she acts like she owns this place along with the other Dark Daughters."

"So I shouldn't really trust her is what you're all saying." I replied, thinking about what was said and how that really fit into what I'd seen of Emily so far.

"Defiantly." Damien replied. "She's not afraid to stab you in the back the moment it's convenient for her."

"Or if she gets something out of it." Shaunee added.

"Yeah, she's incredibly ambitious and really concerned about her appearance." Erin agreed.

"Speaking of which, I think she wants to become the next head of the Dark Daughters when Aphrodite either completes the Change or kicks the bucket." Stevie Rae added, earning nods of agreements from the others.

"Well I can confirm that since she told me last night and again this morning that she doesn't want me talking to her because it would ruin her image and her chances of becoming the next leader of the Dark Daughters." I replied.

From there we kind of dropped the topic of my evil roommate and moved on to other matters. We talked about the usual teen nonsense; which was mostly about how Steve Rae and I disagreed with Erin and Shaunee about how shoes made the world go round and how Damian's vocabulary skills were epic compared to mine. And just like always, lunch ended too early for my liking. Steve Rae and I raced off to our Tae Kwan Do class (which was very good, exciting, and fun), but the highlight of my day was Equestrian Studies.

* * *

Today's class was similar to yesterday's class; we got to clean out stalls again. A different student who had Persephone the hour before me and who happened to have a free hour during this class spent her time riding Persephone. So today, while the other kid kept Persephone busy and I cleaned out a different stall, after class I got make a new friend with a black Arabian horse named Outlaw.

"So _all_ the cats on the grounds have been fallowing me around all day long. And it's not like they have anything important to tell me, just a list of complaints they want me to tell their owners." I complained, as I brushed Outlaw.

"Just tell them to go away." He grumbled in response, as if it were as easy as that.

"I've tried that, but I'm really not allowed to tell them to 'just go away'." I replied. "It's one of the rules here that cats roam freely, and by me telling them to go away I'm violating that rule."

"Well can't you tell them not to bother you during your school hours?" He suggested.

"I have, but they can wait for me out in the hallways and fallow me as I go from class to class and during meals." I sighed.

"So why not get your cat to get them to back off?" Outlaw replied.

"A cat hasn't chosen me yet." I replied. "What made you think I had a cat?" I replied.

"Nothing, just thought that with your affinity and all that a cat would've chosen you in a hoof beat." He mentioned, but with a hidden sense of foreknowing.

"So do you th-" I started before being scared half to death by a voice behind me.

"Who're you talking to?"

Turning around I saw Alex in the doorway, looking at me as though he thought I lost my mind or something. He still had the ugly mucking boots on, gloves, and in his hand he was carrying a curry brush. My guess was that he was on his way to the track room to return the equipment.

"Outlaw." I replied, as I patted his now nicely brushed and shiny black coat for emphasis.

"The horse?" Alex replied, giving me an odd look. "You're talking to the horse and carrying on a conversation with it?"

"_Him_." I corrected automatically just before Outlaw, who Alex didn't hear, shouted at him. "And yes I am. For your information I happen to have an affinity for speaking to animals."

"Oh! That makes so much more sense now… and that also explains why so many cats have been fallowing you around today." He replied, looking a little embarrassed.

"Yeah, I wish they would stop that actually." I replied, trying to keep the conversation going.

"Then why not – oh yeah, like you said, the whole 'cats-roam-freely-here' thing." He replied. "I really didn't mean to listen in between you and, uh, Outlaw here. Sorry about that, it's just that I heard someone talking and didn't hear anyone answering back." He stuck his hands in his pockets and looked (now noticeably) embarrassed.

"Don't worry about it. Honestly, I would've done the same thing." I replied.

"Okay." He replied. "Look, It's starting to get close to Dinner time." He said. Guessing that was his cue for us to go our separate ways, I started to gather my stuff up as I ignored Outlaw's teasing and flirtatious remarks. With one last "see you tomorrow Outlaw", we walked to the track house together and put our equipment back.

"Well…would you mind if I walked you back to your dorm? If that's where you're going that is." He asked.

"I wouldn't mind, I need to drop my stuff off anyways." I replied, trying to be nonchalant.

We didn't say anything as we started walking, but it wasn't an awkward, uncomfortable silence. Actually, it was nice. Once in a while our arms would brush against each other and I would (briefly) think about him possibly holding my hand. Alex made me feel all fluttery in my stomach, kind of like in those cheesy romance movies and novels. But there was something else there, like I _knew_ him from somewhere.

"Hey Tori, look, I know that you're rooming with my ex, but I really hope you don't believe whatever she's told you about me. I don't want you to get the wrong idea about me." He said breaking the silence. His tone hid a hint that he probably wanted to tell me that for awhile now.

"You dated Emily?" I asked.

"You didn't know?" He asked.

"Nope." I replied.

"Oh." He muttered, realizing that I hadn't heard whatever he thought Emily had been telling me.

"Is there something I should know?" I asked.

"No, nothing like that, it's just that I thought she told you something." He replied.

"Ok I get it, not my business." I replied. I was able to take a hint.

"It's not that…except it sort of is, but…look, no matter what you might hear, I just want you to know that she and I are not going out anymore." He replied.

"Okay." I replied. We didn't say anything for a while. I wanted to ask him about Emily, but I couldn't come up with a good way of saying something I probably didn't have any business questioning him about.

"Here we are." He said once we reached the front of the girl's dorm. I was rather surprised at how quick the walk had been.

"Well, thanks for walking me back." I said, with a small smile.

"Hey, any time you want someone to butt in when he's not invited, I'm the guy for you." He replied with a brilliant smile. But before I could walk inside, he spoke up again. "So…I happen to have rented a few DVDs and…I was wondering if you would like to, um…watch them with me…tonight?" He asked. And when I turned around to face him once more and didn't reply fast enough he quickly added, "As friends. Just friends, you know."

"I'd like to, but I can't tonight. I – uh, well I already have plans." I babbled like a moron. I hadn't expected that at all. I had only been here for a few days and I barely knew Alex. I didn't believe in the 'date-someone-who-you-only-just-met-and-don't-know-the-first-thing-about thing that most teenagers were doing. And it wasn't like I was lying either, I did have plans to watch a movie with Steve Rae, Shaunee, Erin, and Damian.

"Oh. Okay. Well…next time. See ya." He said, obviously hurt a bit, as he turned around and walked off without another word.

I shook my head a bit as I walked into the dorm house. Alex and the whole feeling I got around him were confusing indeed.

* * *

Author's Note: Hello Readers! Just wanted to clear something up that I've been asked quite a few times. I just wanted to mention that Yes, Zoey is going to be in this story. I guess I should have mentioned something in the beginning that Tori was marked about a month or so before Zoey was. Sorry for any confusion I might have caused you.


	7. Why So Complicated?

Chapter Seven: Why So Complicated?

"Did I miss anything?" I asked as I walked over to the TV area where Damien and Stevie Rae had set up the movie.

"Nope. You missed the coming attractions though." Stevie Rae replied, patting a spot on the couch next to her.

"Oh, that's good. Sorry I'm kinda late by the way, I stayed at the track house and lost track of time. And then it took me a few minutes to throw my stuff down in my room." I replied as I took my seat next to her. I didn't bother to mention the little fact that I walked back to the dorm house by Alex Parker.

"Don't worry about it." Damien replied, playing with the remote in his hand.

"You're earlier than the twins are at least." Stevie Rae added. And right on cue, Erin walked into the room, though she wasn't accompanied by Shaunee like she usually was.

"Hey everyone. Ready to start the movie?" She greeted as she flopped down in the open space on the couch next to Damien.

"Yeah, but we need to wait for Shaunee." Damien replied.

"Go ahead and start it. She's in the shower and that'll take a while." She replied. "Oh, Tori, here are the magazines you wanted." She replied as she took a small stack out of her pocketbook.

"Thanks!" I said as I took them and put them on the table in front of us and next to the chips and dip.

"You sure you wanna start the movie without her? We was waiting for y'all before, and I think we should wait for her too." Stevie Rae spoke.

"Just start the movie. She'll be down in a few and won't miss _that_ much." Erin replied. With that Damien hit 'play' on the remote and the movie officially began.

Like Erin predicted, we didn't get five minutes into the movie when Shaunee came downstairs and over to our area of the living space. Even though I knew she came out of the shower, the only part that looked like she had was her hair, her clothing and everything else told a different story. Her hair was shiny and it clung together like hair usually did after being wet. But she was dressed in her usual stylish outfit that looked like it came fresh from a runway or something.

"Okay, please! Just please. Did nobody even bother to think to say the movie was starting?" Shaunee said while glaring at Erin.

"I do believe I'm your roommate, not your secretary. It's your blackberry's job to keep your crazy schedule in order, not mine. Also, I'm not the one who decided to take a shower fifteen minutes before we planned to watch a movie." Erin replied lazily while she slumped deeper into her spot on the couch.

"Oh, whatever. It wouldn't kill you to remind me." Shaunee replied as she took her place in the spot next to Erin.

"Now that we're all accounted for, can we get back to the movie?" Damien asked once the episode with the twins calmed down enough.

"Why are you wasting time talking?" Shaunee asked, reaching over to the table in front of us to grab a few chips.

"Start the movie already." Erin ordered good naturedly.

"Now y'all quit your bickering so we can start the movie." Stevie Rae spoke up.

"Alright," the twins replied in unison. From there we all quieted down enough to enjoy the movie.

It was nice, sitting there with my friends, eating fattening chips and dip (which was a real treat since there wasn't any junk food in the kitchen cabinets), and just watching a movie together. Also, I was rather happy to see that most of the cats on campus didn't bother me during the movie.

* * *

It was well into the early hours of the morning when we all went off to our dorms for a good days sleep. Except I stayed up a little later than I should have. I couldn't sleep. No, that wasn't it. It was more like something in the back of my mind kept nagging at me and my brain wouldn't let me rest until I had sorted it out.

Being careful not to wake Emily up, I picked up a random magazine and walked into the bathroom between our closets. Once I closed the door behind me, I turned on the light and sat down against the wall while I began reading the magazine. It felt a little weird, sitting in the bathroom while I read a magazine in the middle of the morning, but it was also surprisingly nice, just reading and allowing my mind to wonder.

I wanted to think about Alex first, the whole thing about him confused me. It was sort of obvious that he _liked_ me, but I didn't _know_ him! And by 'know' I mean know his personality, likes, dislikes, values, and all that stuff that makes up who you really are as a person. I mean, hasn't anyone out there realized that you don't just date random people you only just met? And then there was the whole matter as to whether he was just trying to get a girlfriend like most guys our age were or if he was serious about liking me. Were his feelings toward me just lust or love?

First of all it couldn't be love; he couldn't possibly know me well enough to have developed feelings of 'love' towards me. But if he was serious about liking me, then there was also something seriously wrong with that too. We don't even know if we have anything in common with each other! The only real conversation about our likes and dislikes we'd ever had was during art and about comics! He liked Batman over Spider-man, so what? That barely qualified as dating material likes and dislikes!

There was that little dark side to my thoughts as well, as we all think about the negatives when uncertainly is thrown in our faces. He told me that, once upon a time, he had dated Emily. What if he was trying to make her jealous by liking me? What if he was just using me to get to her? What would he do if he started to like Emily again, or if she started to like him again, and we were dating? Would he dump me for her?

And then there was the matter of how _I_ felt towards him. Did I even like him? I didn't know him, but would I even be willing to date him if we did get to know each other better? I'll admit that he was rather cute, with his charcoal hair and chocolate eyes, but I wasn't one of those hormonal teens that would go for people based solely on looks. I needed to get to know him better before making any final judgments and decisions about him.

After spending a good portion of my time focusing solely on my feelings toward Alex, for some odd reason I ended up wondering what my Aunt and parents were doing. It wasn't a very interesting train of thought, just the usual wondering of how they were getting along without me.

I wondered if my parents even _cared _that I was gone. '_Of course they do' _I thought to myself. _'They're my parents for crying out loud, they're probably missing me just as much as they missed Anne…or at least they should._' I remembered that during the first week my parents and I had called her every night at around seven, just to see how she was doing. We also set her so many letters that we could have probably filled several books. So why hadn't my parents called me like they called Anne yet? Ever since Anne rejected the Change, they've been acting very differently than they used to. Maybe they were distancing themselves from me so that there wouldn't be a major heartbreak if I did reject the Change? If that was the case, it was understandable, but not very fair to me.

And then there was my Aunt Tanya, the only person in the family I actually felt close to. I felt like such a little kid, wanting to call her and tell her all about my first days at Vamp. High. I wanted to tell her all about my loser roommate, how cool the classes were, and basically how I was starting to sink into my new life. I also wanted to ask for advice on the whole Alex issue, she would know exactly what to do and wouldn't judge the whole think like my parents would. Hell, I just wanted to talk to her. But I could, unlike my parents, easily forgive her for not calling me right away since the whole flipped days and night issue was a real pain in the butt.

Deciding that I needed to get to sleep in order to function during the night, I turned the light off and left the bathroom.

* * *

The next few days passed by with ease. I didn't get any calls or letters from my family, but I tried not to focus on that too much, and I soon found that it didn't bother me too much. I was happy to see most of the cats on campus stop harassing me during the school hours, though after hours were a completely different story. I actually began to form a sort of routine for myself as I slipped into my new life here.

In the mornings I got up, ignored Emily's random babble and gossip, got dressed and headed to the kitchen area downstairs for breakfast. Vamp. Sociology was spent listening to the day's lecture, taking notes, and talking to Damien before class started. Sketching was spent chatting with Alex, though our conversations were mainly small talk and didn't help create an actually friendship between us. The rest of my morning classes were rather normal, up until lunch (which was always an adventure) where I talked with Stevie Rae, Damien, and the twins. Tae Kwan Do was spent getting my butt kicked by Stevie Rae and Equestrian Studies was spent with Outlaw. After school, I spent a good portion of my time in the field house. And when I wasn't there I was either up in my room studying and doing homework or off with my friends watching movies or just hanging out.

But _this_ afternoon was different.

As I was finishing up my Vamp. Sociology paper, and moving onto the night's Lit. homework, Emily came storming into our room and dumped three torn packages down on my bed.

"There you go, they were in the mail and addressed to you." She replied as she turned on her heels and strolled over to her own desk.

"Why are they all ripped up?" I asked, predicting that I wouldn't like the answer that followed.

"They were in our doom mailbox, and since you _never_ get mail, I thought they were mine. But once I saw what was in them, I checked the label and saw that they were yours. Thank the Goddess for that, I thought that my parents had sent me those hideous _rags_." She replied, as though it wasn't that big of deal.

Deciding that I wasn't in the mood to battle it out with her, I sort of let it slide. "Alright, next time _please_ make sure to read the address label."

"Whatever," she concluded, not paying much attention to me anyway.

And with our conversation over and done with for the time being, I turned my attention from her and my homework to my packages. I had ordered a few shirts and such from the magazines. Paying for them wasn't that big of a deal, since I had been saving up all my birthday, Christmas, babysitting, and dog walking money for years. Saving wasn't hard for me since my parents didn't allow me to buy anything they disapproved of, which was pretty much _everything_.

"Hey, Tori." Emily barked from the other end of the room.

"Yes?" I asked a little surprised. Emily _never _talked to me unless she absolutely had to, or unless she needed to yell at me about something. So I prepared myself for a possible 'psycho bitch' scene.

"You do realize that this Wednesday will be your first parent visitation night, right? I just want to make myself perfectly clear now, if you embarrass me in front of my parents, you'll wish you'd never been born. I _will_ make your life here a living _hell_." She threatened, turning her fluffy pink chair so that she was facing my direction now.

"What makes you think I would embarrass you? What have I done during my time here that would make you think I would purposely embarrass you? It's not like I dedicate my life and time into making you look bad, actually I don't think I've done _anything _remotely like that since I got here." I replied, stern caution in my tone.

I didn't want to provoke a fight with her, but I had to draw the line somewhere. I could deal with the babbling and gossip, the rude tone she used when she talked to me or about my friends, even the creepy glare she would give me if I passed her in the hallway. But I wasn't going to tolerate her _threatening_ me. Who the hell did she think she was? Emily was nothing more than a bully and needed to reminded that I wasn't under her thumb. She wasn't the boss of me.

"You didn't do anything, _yet_. I'm just making sure that you _don't_." She replied, her eyebrows rising a bit. I guess I'd surprised her by standing up for myself.

"Well that doesn't give you the right to boss me around or accuse me of anything." I stated.

"Fine. But there's one more thing I want to clear up with you. I don't care what _he_ tells you, _I_ broke up with _him_, not the other way around." She replied as if giving an explanation to something someone had told me. I, on the other hand, was extremely confused and gaped at her with a questioning look.

"Um…Alright, what are you talking about?" I asked.

" I'm talking about Alex Parker." She replied and added, "Don't pretend you don't know what I'm talking about, I know all about _it_," when I continued to look at her as if she'd lost her mind.

"All about what?" I asked.

"He's _into_ you." She replied.

"He's into me?" I repeated, turning the statement into a question.

"Duh, didn't you notice?" She asked, and when I shook my head 'no' she continued, "You _didn't_ notice? For crying out loud girl, he's all over you! Get your nerdish head out of the clouds and pay attention for once! He totally shows interest in you, especially when he asks you about your art and affinity."

"Really? I didn't notice." I replied, a little taken aback by the sudden personality change that had occurred within Emily. She _always_ treated me like a burden, _never_ like a friend. And yet, here she was, chatting with me about boys and crushes like we were BFF's. Not that I was fooled. I hadn't forgotten all the mean things she had said in the past or the threat from no more than five minutes ago.

"Oh _yeah_, he has the _hots_ for you, anybody with two good eyes can see that. Also, a word to the wise, be careful of him if you decide to go out with him." Emily replied. I waited for her to elaborate on why I should be careful of Alex, but when she didn't continue I asked her myself.

"Careful of what?"

"The boy may have a pretty face and body, but he's _possessive_, _controlling_, and verbally _abusive_. Qualities that I don't appreciate in a man. Oh _sure_ he'll seem sweet at first; take you to dinner, walk you to class, hold your hand, spend every possible minute of the night with you, but he'll start to change after a while and show his _true_ colors." Emily replied. "If _I_ were _you_, and thank the Goddess I'm not, _I _would make it clear to the boy that you're _not_ into someone who's a complete jerk."

There was something hidden in her voice that made me think about what she'd said. It sounded a little forceful, like she wanted me to dislike Alex…like she _wanted_ to keep me away from him. Oh wonderful, on top of the whole Alex issue, she's jealous because she _thinks_ Alex likes _me_ now instead of her. That explained why she was acting all nice right now, she wanted me to believe what she said about him.

That's another thing I hate, when crazy ex-girlfriends try to sabotage your relationship (or a possible one in my case) because they're not over their ex-boyfriend. And did I even want Alex to like me when he had been Emily's boyfriend at one point in time? Especially when it was obvious that she was still interested in him and was setting me up to hate him. I probably shouldn't. I mean, I definitely wasn't going to judge Alex based on what Emily of all people told me, but I couldn't help wonder about the truth of her words. It also made me wonder what he saw in Emily and liked and what he saw in me and liked.

"Thanks for the advice, Emily. I'll keep what you said in mind." I replied after pondering about the whole thing for a moment.

"Alright, glad to hear that I'm saving you from a total heartbreak." Emily replied as she swiveled her chair and went back to the work on her desk. Her tone sounded a little too happy in my opinion.

* * *

Dinner was good tonight – seriously yummy veggie burgers, white rice, and baby snow peas – yeah, everything had been great. Until Alex came by our table and said hi. Okay, so it wasn't a "hi, Tori, I really like you" hi. It was a "Hey Tori." Period. He'd gotten his food and was walking with a couple other guys the Twins called hotties. I'll admit that I didn't really notice them since I was too busy looking at Alex. They walked over to our table, I looked up and smiled, he met my eyes for a millisecond, said, "Hey Tori," and walked on without giving me a chance to say hi back.

The scene immediately shut the Twins up, they'd been talking about some cute boy in their Lit class, and focused the entire table's attention on me.

"What was _that_ about?" Stevie Rae asked.

I took a moment to think about what I was going to say. I hadn't told anyone about the night he walked me back to the dorm house or about the weird eye contact thing that sometimes happened between us.

"He sits next to me in art and we both have Equestrian studies together." I replied.

"I feel a juicy tidbit coming on." Shaunee commented.

"Yeah, _and_?" Erin asked, sensing that there was more to the whole thing than just that.

"He just looks at me and talks about little things when he's around me." I continued.

"Define 'just looks at me'," Damien said.

"Well…Every now and then I can feel his eyes on me, and when I turn around to look at him, he does happen to be staring at me. But he stops when I look at him." I explained.

"Uh, Tori honey, have you ever smiled back at the boy when he stares at you?" Damien asked.

I took a moment to think about it. Had I ever smiled back at him? Crap, I didn't think I did. I probably just sat there and stared back like a moron all those times. "I dunno," I replied instead of the sad truth. Too bad I didn't fool Damien for a minute.

"That's what I like about our Tori; she has _such_ a way with boys. Next time smile at him." He advised.

"Alex Parker is _really_ cute! Well, not nearly as cute as Kenny Chesney, actually he's just plain hot. But Alex is still cute!" Stevie Rae said quickly.

"Okay, just please with your country obsession!" Shaunee frowned at Stevie Rae before bringing her attention back to me. "She does have a point though. He is rather cute, and staring is an obvious sign he's into you."

"You got that right Twin. Even though he insn't as hot as a lot of other guys here, does happen to have a pretty cute face." Erin said, adding in her own two cents.

"When he dumped Emily I realized that he also has it going on upstairs too. He isn't_ just_ a cute face like I originally thought." Shaunee said.

"So _he_ dumped Emily." I stated more than asked. I'd already heard Emily's side of the relationship, though I was pretty sure I should take what comes out of her mouth it with a grain of salt. I wanted to hear what they thought about the relationship.

"Yep." Stevie Rae answered.

"No big mystery as to why they broke up. Any boy with a values, beliefs, and plain old common sense would dump Emily once they realized what she's _all_ about." Shaunee added.

"Which is sex by the way." Erin chimed in.

"Exactly," Shaunee agreed before continuing. "That's all she's after, and she could care less about the other person's feelings. Sex and how they boost her social status is all boys are good for to her."

"But wouldn't a guy like that though? I mean, don't they always want to get all up and in your pants?" Stevie Rae asked.

"Sad truth is that most guys are like that." Shaunee answered.

"But there are some guys who aren't entirely after _that_. There are some who actually care about the person they're with." Damien replied. "Anyways, getting back on track, what do _you_ think about Alex?"

I could feel my face begin to go a little red. "I, um…well…I don't really know. I don't know him that well and…" I trailed off. My feelings for Alex were complex and confusing. I sort of liked him, but felt uneasy whenever I was around him.

"I bet it would piss off Emily if you two actually started to date." Stevie Rae commented. Seeing the looks in everyone's eyes, I quickly spoke up before they could agree with the idea.

"Hold up a minute, I never said anything about _dating_ him. Heck, I don't even know _if_ I like him that way yet."

"You do have a point there." Erin agreed.

"Get to know him better before you decide, and next time he's around you, smile and say hi." Damien advised.

"Yeah, even if you're unsure about him, it never hurts to show a little interest." Shaunee said.

"Alright." I agreed, nodding my head a bit. The way they thought of my Alex issue somehow made it all sound so much easier than I originally thought it was. I also really, really liked how it sounded when Damien said "our" Tori…like I belonged.

Since I had such strict parents, I didn't really have many friends while growing up. I was just realizing now that friendship isn't about who you've know the longest, it's about who's been by your side the whole time. Stevie Rae, Damien, Shaunee, and Erin have been by my side and helping me settle into my new life since day one, something Emily, my parents, and Alex hadn't done for me.

Maybe I didn't need to call up my Aunt every time I wanted or need advice. I could always turn to my friends and rely on them for that advice and words of wisdom. They were honest and truthful, unlike Emily, and weren't as confusing as Alex either.

* * *

**Authors Note: Sorry I haven't updated in a while! I just haven't found the time to write! AP Comparisons are the Devil, not to mention all that before the Holidays school work I had to do. But I hope I've made it up to everyone by making this chapter extra long. (Well, part of the long length is a lot of dialogue, but it still counts for something! XD)**


	8. Absence of Visitation

Chapter Eight: Absence of Visitation 

Wednesday arrived too early for my liking. Parent visitation night was tonight, and I was extremely nervous. It's been about two weeks since I last saw or spoke to my parents. They hadn't been okay with me being Marked, moving into the House of Night, and they were most certainly not okay with me beginning the Change that would either turn me into a vampyre or, if my body rejected the transformation, kill me. I honestly didn't know what to expect from them when they visited… that is if they decide to visit me at all. I didn't know if they were coming or not, since they haven't talked to me since the day I was marked.

As I slid into the big boothlike bench we always claimed as our own for every school meal, I joined the Twin's conversation with Damien.

"Maybe your parents won't show up this month." Shaunee said hopefully.

"They'll be here, I got an e-mail from them saying so. I don't understand why they torture themselves as much as me. I know they hate coming here just as much as they hate me." Damien sighed.

"I don't think that they hate you, Damien. I think that they just don't understand you. There is a difference." I replied. Okay, so I haven't met Damien's parents, but he has told me about them. They were big believers in the People of the Faith, like my parents were. And while his parents were perfectly fine with the whole Marked and going through the Change thing, they were not okay with him being gay.

Damien was about to reply before being interrupted with the unmistakable voice of Neferet as she called over the school intercom. "Students and Professors, please make your way to the reception hall. It is now time for this month's parent visits."

* * *

I stood awkwardly against the wall inside the reception hall, which was still filling up with uncomfortable-looking human parents, a few human siblings, a bunch of fledgling students, and several of our vampyre professors. It didn't take the others long to find their parents, but I, like a wall flower, was left to watch everyone enjoy their time with their families. I'll admit that I was a little jealous of everyone, even Damien, because at least they had people who cared enough about them to visit.

Stevie Rae was the first to see her mom, a woman who looked just like her; only a bit heavier and older. I watched as her mom hugged her and handed her a small box. Stevie Rae opened it and I discovered that her mom had given her cookies. Stevie Rae hugged her mom again and then they stood there talking, probably filling each other in on how their lives were going and catching up on all that they've missed.

Shaunee and Erin spotted their parents shortly after Stevie Rae had. Instead of going their separate ways for the night to visit their parents, they walked off together to visit both sets of parents. I noticed that Shaunee looked more like her Dad while Erin looked more like her Mom. Both sets of parents greeted each other and their daughters. After all the hugs and greetings, they talked, laughed, and enjoyed each other's company for what would be the rest of the night.

Damien also spotted his parents and walked over to them looking very pale and stressed. His Mom gave him a very brief hug while his Dad gave him a strong, masculine handshake. His Mom kept close to his Dad, not saying much and looking like she didn't really want to come. But she had and that was what counted. Damien's Dad, on the other hand, handed him a small stack of magazines and talked enough for both he and his wife. I got a strange feeling that, unlike the other student's conversations, their conversation didn't revolve around how Damien had been during the past month or how he was enjoying school.

I eventually spotted Emily with her parents and brother, who looked a heck of a lot older than her. To my surprise Emily wasn't wearing her usual slutty get up. Actually, this was the _least_ amount of her skin that she's ever shown off since I arrived at the House of Night. She wasn't showing any cleavage and her skirt was down to her knees. Her parents looked totally ordinary, which was sort of a shock to me, and they looked really happy to see her. Her brother looked like one of those 'biker' stereotypes. He looked like he had better things to do than be here, but also looked like he was enjoying his time here none the less. They actually looked like a normal family, and it made me wonder about how Emily presented herself at school and to her family.

And then there was Alex, who was receiving a visit from a man I thought was his Dad. They were standing over by the long, linen-draped table that was filled with all sorts of refreshments. He and his Dad were happily talking as they sipped away at their drinks. I could see that his Dad had a cup of coffee while Alex had a glass of wine.

I noticed Aphrodite and her parents slip out of the reception hall, but didn't think much of it.

I was happy for my friends, even my roommate to certain degree. They, with the exception of Damien, looked happy and seemed to be enjoying their visit with their families. Although I was just a little disappointed that my family didn't bother to show up or tell me that they weren't going to. If they were here I would've also been enjoying a visit. Instead I was left standing against a wall and feeling like a stalker as I watched my friends have a good time.

"Where are your parents Tori? I would like to meet them." A voice spoke, interrupting me from my thoughts. It was Lenobia. Tonight her thick hair that reached all the way down to her waist was tied back into a high ponytail. She was wearing a sleek, royal blue dress with the goddess sign over her heart instead of her usual riding gear. She might be tiny and usually carry herself like a prima ballerina, but the dress made her look stunning.

"Hello Lenobia," I quickly replied as I greeted her with the usual fist over the heart greeting. "I don't think they're coming." I continued, feeling a little embarrassed and awkward.

"I see, that being the case then, if you wish, you can spend the remaining visiting time with Outlaw. I've found that Horses are great company when we're feeling lonely and they help us work through our problems." Lenobia suggested, her stormy grey eyes showing a deeper understanding.

"Thank you." I replied. Lenobia, my mentor, is my favorite teacher. Fledglings formed special bonds with their mentors – and Lenobia and I were no different. She understood my feelings and thoughts better than any of the other teachers did.

I took the shortest way out of the reception hall and took my time following the winding path through the school grounds. It was a cool, cloudy September night. The moon was almost full and it's bright silver light was dulled by the clouds.

"Hey, it's Tori!" "Tori!" "Wait up!" A few small voices called out. I turned around to see a few cats come racing towards me.

"Hello. How are you tonight?" I replied politely as I continued down the path towards the field house.

"I'm good!" "Fine!" "Could be better" were shouted at me.

"And why could you be better?" I asked the one cat, an orange tabby.

"With all those other humans running around, my human won't pay attention to me!" He whined.

"Well it is parent visitation night; you could give them an hour or two to themselves. It's not every day that the other fledglings see their families." I explained.

"Then why aren't your parents here?" One of the other cats, a large, white, long-haired puff ball, asked.

"That's what I would like to know." I replied, my voice betraying me and sounding more depressed than I meant it to.

"Hey Tori, you have thumbs, do you think you could open a can of tuna for me? I'm hungry." The third cat, a rather fat looking Ragdoll, asked without the slightest care for my feelings.

"Not right now, maybe later." I replied.

"Geesh, you're as useful as my human." He snorted before turning around and walking in the opposite direction. The two other cats raced off after him as well and I was left alone again. I continued down the winding path until I reached the long, low brick building over by the south wall known as the Field House. Upon arriving, I made my way to the tack room and took a currycomb and then walked into the area with the stalls.

"Hey there Outlaw." I greeted the black Arabian. "How are you tonight?" I asked even though it had been a few hours since we last saw each other.

"Shouldn't you be at dinner?" He asked, not really returning the greeting. After two weeks of cleaning out his stall, brushing him after school, and having many long conversations with him, I've learned to deal with and accept his personality; which is usually laid-back and nonchalant along with stubborn, opinionated, and just a little rude.

"Yeah, but Lenobia said I could visit if I wanted to." I replied, not wanting to explain the entire sad truth of my family life just yet. "So do you want me to brush you, or not?"

"Sure, whatever." Outlaw replied lazily. And so I commenced in brushing him. We didn't talk for a few minutes and he was the one who broke the awkward silence. "Something on your mind?"

"Hmm?...N-no. What makes you think that?" I replied.

"You usually never stop talking. So, what's on your mind tonight?" He replied, asking the question again.

"It's parent visitation night and…" I broke off, trying to find the right words to explain my feelings. I didn't want it to sound like my family had _completely_ abandoned me, even though they kind of did. I wanted to hang onto that little shred of hope that they couldn't make it this month, would call me tomorrow night and apologize, and then come visit me next month.

"They didn't show did they?" Outlaw concluded, pulling me from my thought hopes.

"Yeah, they didn't come. And…they haven't talked to me at all since I was Marked. And that bothers me since when my sister was Marked, they called her nonstop and sent her millions of letters. I mean, I'm their daughter too! They could at least call to see if I'm alright…to see how my life is going. They always treated Anne better…and I've just been ignored. I'm nothing to them compared to Anne…" I trailed off, feeling tears starting to build up in my eyes. It felt almost good to be spilling a fraction of my heart out to Outlaw, but at the same time my words only made the truth seem more real and complicated than they did in my head.

"It's their loss, really. Forget about them and focus on yourself for a while. They'll either realize how awesome you really are and beg you to come back into your life or they'll keep being the same morons that they've been. And if they do come crawling back, it's your decision on whether or not you even want them around." Outlaw replied, surprising me by how serious and kind he was instead of his usual attitude about things in my life.

"Thanks Outlaw." I replied, fighting off tears as I wrapped my arms around his neck, giving him a hug.

"…And if you really want to talk to them, then why not call them yourself? You can ask them why they've been ignoring you then." He suggested after taking a moment for me to hug him.

I thought back to the day I was Marked two weeks ago. Aunt Tanya had said something that I should've thought of sooner. _"Call me if you need anything, regardless of time. I love you Tori."_ Why hadn't _I_ called? It was a simple thing really, right? If I wanted to talk to them so badly, all I had to do was pick up the phone…but I also wanted to see if they cared enough about me to make the first effort and call me first.

In the end, I decided that Aunt Tanya would be the first person I called. I needed to speak to her first to know if I wasn't rejected yet. I needed the support first before I tackled the call to my overly protective, control-freak, and annoying parents. They could wait until after I finished catching up with Aunt Tanya, but I still needed to know if they still wanted me in their lives.

"You're a good friend Outlaw, I hope you know that." I told him while I continued to brush him.

"Well I do now." Was all he said.

* * *

"Well, I don't want to speak to you anymore either!" I shouted as loud as I could as I slammed the phone down the receiver. Tears were flowing down my cheeks, but I ignored them. I curled up on my bed, hugging a pillow with my knees up to my chest. And I cried for a long time.

The conversation I wanted with my Aunt never happened. I called her home phone and cell fifteen times and got nothing but her answering machines. So, I called my parents next and they picked up the third time I called the house phone. The conversation was going great until I asked why they didn't visit tonight.

The People of the Faith said that they would be banned from the church and their souls would be left to rot if they ever set foot on "Satan's Ground", as they called my new home. And so, church is more important than me, my life, and my feelings. I asked why they didn't come visit anyway, or call, or even send me a letter (after all, what the People of Faith didn't know couldn't hurt them, right?). Well, They did a one-eighty flip on me and they called _me_ the spoiled brat for not respecting their religion, beliefs, and decisions. They then went on to tell me that my new vampyre beliefs were wrong, sinful, and just plain evil.

What the hell? Who were they to say that I didn't respect their beliefs when they're the ones who don't even acknowledge mine! Mom even told me not to call anymore unless it was to apologize for my rude behavior and disrespect towards them.

I felt horrible about the whole situation. It was horrible to feel so rejected and unloved by my family, but it felt better knowing the situation for what it was instead of not knowing and playing a guessing game with myself. At least I knew what to expect from them now.

Still curled up, I eventually cried myself to sleep.

* * *

I didn't think that would actually fall asleep. I figured that I was sit there, awake and miserable about my suckish family. But after a few minutes of crying and feeling horrible, I eventually drifted off to the land of dreams.

I didn't have a nightmare, either. Instead I dreamed about cats. There was a huge crowd of them, and they were all yelling things at me. The odd thing is that even though I knew they were yelling at me, I couldn't hear their endless complaints. There was one cat in particular that I focused on though, she was the only one not yelling at me. I walked my way through the crowd of cats until I was the very back where she was. She looked up at me as I looked down at her.

"What's taking you so long?" She asked. She sounded very young, like a child, although she didn't look like a kitten. She was a short haired calico with big owl-like green eyes.

"Taking me so long to do what?" I asked the cat.

"To find me. To tell him how you feel. And, even though you just did, it took you too long to call them." She replied.

"Wait, what? It's taking me too long to find you?" I asked.

"Yes. You're taking too long. I guess I'll just have to come to you. You need me more than you realize." She replied.

"What?" I asked, completely lost. But before the cat could reply to my question, the sound of a door opening and slamming ripped me from the dream and back into reality.

* * *

I don't think I was asleep for very long, but it still didn't make it right that Aphrodite and Emily came barging into the room and woke me up.

Aphrodite walked right up to me and her eyes narrowed at me. I braced myself for a possible psycho girl scene, even though I knew that no amount of bracing would allow me to handle one. I wasn't in any position to handle their crap. But instead of shouting at me, to my surprise, she smiled and began talking to me in her fake bubbly voice.

"Tori Willow, I want to issue an invitation for you to join the Dark Daughters in our own private Full Moon Ritual this Friday. I know it's unusual for someone who isn't at least in their fifth former year to join in our rituals, but we feel it would be good for you to join us. We've asked the permission of your mentor Lenobia, and she agrees that it would be good for you to join us as long as you wish to."

I was stunned for a moment. An invitation to the Dark Daughter's full moon ritual? Was this a good thing or a bad thing? I stole a glance at Emily. It wasn't that I trusted or relied on her for anything, it's just that I needed to see her reaction to know if this was good or bad for me.

To my surprise, instead of her evil glare that she usually gave me, her face was impassive. But she did notice that I looked to her for some sort of reaction and she nodded her head ever so slightly. I took that as her way of giving me her approval, not that I needed _her_ approval of all peoples. But, speaking of approval, they said that they had spoken to Lenobia, who said it was a good idea. I didn't want to disappoint her, especially when she already expected me to go.

"Um…Alright, I'll be there this Friday. Thank you for inviting me." I replied, really wanting to turn the offer down but didn't only because I didn't want to disappoint Lenobia.

"Excellent," Aphrodite spoke the word like a villain would when the hero agreed to their evil plan without realizing what they were doing. It sent me on edge, I defiantly didn't like the way she said it. "In case I don't see you around, I want to make sure you know where to go on Friday. The Dark Daughters' Full Moon Ritual will start at four a.m., right after the school's ritual. You'll miss dinner, but don't worry about that. We'll feed you. Oh, it's in the rec hall over by the east wall. If you have any other questions, just ask Emily." She finished with a tight-lipped, sarcastic smile. She flipped her long hair, turned on her heels, and then walked out of the room without another word.

"I know that you're going to _love_ Friday's ritual." Emily said with an equally fake smile.

I shrugged my shoulders in response. I didn't want to talk to Emily, simple as that. Also, my mind was busy thinking of how I was going to explain to Stevie Rae, Damien, Shaunee, and Erin that I was going to be attending a Dark Daughter ritual. We all hated that group and now I was actually joining them, even though I didn't want to.

Also I was busy thinking about my dream. Ever since I had that dream with Nyx in it, I've been paying more attention to my dreams and what they could possibly mean. Who did the cat in my dream represent? Or, like my other dream, was it possibly a message warning me about future events? My other dream gave me a hint about my affinity, did this dream possibly tell me to who my cat could be?

There were so many questions and so few answers. Sighing to myself, I got up from my spot on my bed. It was late and I was still tired. I took my pajamas, walked into the bathroom, changed, and got ready for bed. Afterwards I flopped back down on my bed and drifted off to sleep, hoping that I would figure out the answers to my troubles or that I would have the cat dream again.

* * *

**Authors Note: Sorry I haven't updated in a while! I just haven't found the time to write! Midterms are coming up, so I'm going to be slow when it comes to updating. But I hope I've made it up to everyone by making this chapter long. **


	9. Dangerous Extracurricular Activities

Chapter Nine – Dangerous Extracurricular Activities

I walked up the steps and through the thick wooden doors of Nyx's Temple. As I walked deeper into the foyer, I began to hear the soothing sound of running water. A beautiful fountain came into view as I rounded a corner and I discovered the source of the running water sounds.

Within a thick, arched stone doorway stood a vampyre I didn't recognize. She was dressed entirely in black – a long skirt and a silky, bell-sleeved blouse. She also had the silver embroidered Goddess figure over her breast. Her hair was long and the color of wheat. Sapphire-colored spirals radiated from her crescent moon tattoo.

I moved purposefully into the space in front of her. I placed my closed fist over my heart, a sign of respect as well as greeting. The vampyre smiled at me, dipped her fingers in a rock bowl she was holding, and traced a pentagram on my forehead over my Mark.

"Merry meet, Tori Willow, welcome to the House of Night and your new life. And blessed be." She said once she finished tracing."

"Blessed be." I murmured back, trying to remember all that Damien had told me about rituals and what to do. There was so much to know and, with this one being my first, I was extremely nervous.

"Go on in and join your friends," She said kindly, and as if reading my thoughts. "There's no need to be nervous."

"Thank you," I replied as I hurried into the room.

There were candles everywhere. Huge white ones suspended from the ceiling in iron chandeliers. Big candle trees held more of them and were lines along the walls. The only furniture in the big room was an antique wooden table situated in the center that was kinda like the one in the dining hall - only this one wasn't just loaded with food and wine and such. This one also held a marble statue of the Goddess, arms upraised and looking a lot like the embroidered design the vamps wore. There was a huge candelabrum on the table, its fat white candles burning brightly, as well as several thick sticks of smoking incense.

I made my feet move so I could take my place in the circle beside Damien and the others, who I spotted shortly after entering the mystifying room.

"About time." Damien said under his breath.

"Sorry I'm late." I replied. It was a stupid thing for me to do, but I stayed in the Field house after school and lost track of time.

"Leave her alone. She's nervous enough as it is, it being her first ritual an all." Stevie Rae told him, coming to my defense.

"_Sssh!_ It's starting," Shaunee hissed.

Four forms seemed to materialize from within the darkened corners of the room to become women who made their way to four spots just within the circle. A male vampyre began to recite Lord Byron's "She Walks in Beauty" poem. As he spoke, the women began to dance, their movements almost seemed to call alive the words of the old poem.

"Welcome Nyx's children to the Goddess's celebration of the full moon!" Neferet said as she took a goblet from the table and lifted it, as if offering a drink to the circle.

The adult vampyres chorused, "Merry meet."

Neferet smiled and put the goblet back on the table and picked up a long white taper that was already lit and sitting in a single candlestick holder. Then she walked across the circle to face a vamp I didn't know who was standing at what must be the head of the circle. The vamp saluted her, hand over breast, before turning around so that her back was to Neferet.

Then everyone, including me even though I was kinda slow, turned to face east. Out of the corner of my eye I could see Neferet raise her arms over her head as her voice rang against the stone walls of the temple. "From the east I summon air and ask that you carry to this circle the gift of knowledge that our ritual will be filled with learning."

The vamp who was standing in the east pulled a thick yellow candle from the folds of her dress, and Neferet lit it. She lifted it into the air, and then placed it, flickering, at her feet. Once the candle was on the ground, the circle shifted to the right. I was still kinda slow, but got there faster than I had before air was called.

Once everyone had turned, Neferet continued. "From the south I summon fire and ask that you light in this circle the gift of strength of will, so that our ritual will be binding and powerful." There was a short pause, my guess was because it was for the next vampyre to light their candle as the first one had.

This time I didn't need to wait and follow the group to turn again to my right to face west. "From the west I summon water and ask that you wash this circle in compassion, that the light of the full moon can be used to bestow healing to our group as well as understanding." Neferet spoke before she lit the west-facing vamp's blue candle. The vamp lifted it, and placed it at her feet just as the others had done with their candles.

"From the north I summon earth and ask that you grow within this circle the gift of manifestation, that the wishes and prayers from tonight will come to fruition." Neferet spoke once we had all turned right again. She lit the north-facing vamp's green candle and the vamp lifted it, and placed it at her feet.

"And last, I summon spirit to complete our circle and ask that you fill us with connection, so that as your children we may prosper together." Neferet said as she took the purple candle in the middle of the circle and allowed the male vampyre to light it.

She lifted the candle and then placed it on a cleared off spot on the table. Then she began to move around within the circle, speaking to us, meeting our eyes and including us in her words.

"This is the time of the fullness of the moon. All things wax and wane, even Nyx's children, her vampyres. But on this night the powers of life, of magick, and of creation are at their brightest – as is our Goddess's moon. This is the time of building…of doing. This is a time when the veil between the mundane world and the strange and beautiful realms of the Goddess become thin indeed. On this night may one transcend the boundaries of the worlds with ease, and know the beauty and enchantment of Nyx."

Then the poet began to speak in his deep powerful voice. "This is a time for weaving the ethereal into being, of spinning the strands of space and time to bring forth Creation. For life is a circle as well as a mystery. Our Goddess understands this, as does her consort, Erebus. Light…dark…day…night…death…life…all is tied together by spirit and the touch of the Goddess. If we keep the balance and look to the Goddess we can learn to weave a spell of moonlight and fashion with it a fabric of pure magical substance to keep with us all the days of our lives."

"Close your eyes, Children of Nyx," Neferet spoke up. "and send a secret desire to your Goddess. Tonight, when the veil between the worlds is thin – when magic is afoot within the mundane – perhaps Nyx will grant your petitions and dust you with the gossamer mist of dreams fulfilled."

I closed my eyes and thought about the magic that seemed to surround me, and then I sent up my wish into the night. _My secret wish is that I belong… that I'm accepted and not rejected by those close to me._

Neferet called for us to open our eyes and, in a voice that was at the same time soft and powerful, she continued the ritual. I listened intently to the rest of the ritual, and finished with the rest of the circle in the end by echoing Neferet's closing words. "Merry meet and merry part and merry meet again!"

And that was it. My first ritual of the Goddess was over and it was time to join in my second for the night.

* * *

"There you are, Tori!" Aphrodite's voice slid across the room just ahead of her body. I jumped slightly, I hadn't even opened the door entirely before she spoke. "You need to hurry. I brought what you need to wear over your clothes. Throw it on already." Aphrodite said as she pulled me deeper into the room by the wrist and shoved a black cloak in my hands.

There didn't seem to be any arguing with her, so I took the black cloak and threw it over my outfit. Once it was on though, Aphrodite harshly pulled the hood over my head so that it was covering my face. Then a different set of hands pushed me towards a table, causing me to stub my toe one of the legs due to my lack of sight at the moment. A third pair of hands shoved me down onto to a chair. And then the first person, who I knew to be Aphrodite because of the way her fingernails felt, gipped my right wrist and jerked it toward them. She yanked the sleeve of the black cloak up towards my shoulder and I shivered as I felt the cool, metal tip touch my exposed flesh.

"What're you –" I began to ask, starting to freak a little, only to have Emily brake in.

"Did you actually think we _wanted_ you to join us?" Her voice was a low, sinister hiss.

"You're only our _refrigerator_." Pempheredo's voice spoke.

"That's all you'll _ever_ be good for." Enyo's voice practically purred.

"You're _nothing _to us." I recognized Deino's voice say.

"It was your choice to come. By doing so you agreed to this." Aphrodite said in her fake bubbly voice as the knife in her hand bit into my flesh. I wanted to cry, but didn't since I didn't want to give them the satisfaction they were looking for.

The rest of their ritual from that point on seemed to become one large blur. It probably had to do with my lack of eyesight and energy. I remembered when Emily wrapped some bandages around my wrist carelessly. They were too tight and uncomfortable against my sore wrist, but I didn't dare express my discomfort my messing with them. I remembered the unmistakable sent of pot and other lesser known spices fill the air shortly after Aphrodite's clique left me sitting in the chair.

While Neferet's ritual had been powerful, with energy filling the whole room, Aphrodite's wasn't nearly as powerful as it was naughty. Her voice carried a hint of a sexy and flirty mix behind her words throughout the whole ritual. The atmosphere during Aphrodite's ritual gave the feeling that a group of teens had gotten together, was doing something they knew was wrong, and was doing it anyway simply because they could get away with it. The energy of the circle was tense and alert, not mystifying and surprisingly peaceful as Neferet's had been.

Once Aphrodite finished her ritual with the words, "Merry meet and merry part and merry meet again", I stood from the chair and took the cloak off. I walked calmly from the room and towards the large wooden doors. The instant I closed the thick wooden door of the rec. hall, I ran like a crazy person. I didn't know where I was running to, except that I wanted to be away from them. I became blinded as I finally let loose the tears that I had held in.

Finally, when I couldn't breathe, I crashed against the cool wood of a thick tree near the school's protective wall. Shakily, I tried to catch my breath. I failed miserably as I continued to cry, and cry, and cry some more. My knees were shaking so badly that it actually hurt to stand. I pressed my back against the security of the tree's ancient bark and slowly sank down onto the ground.

Without even giving it a second though, I wiped my eyes and nose on the back of my hand. Heck, why was I even crying? Why did I feel so hurt by their _words_? It was only words, right? So why did they hurt so much? I knew that Aphrodite and Emily were mean, evil, and hateful hags. What was I thinking when I agreed to go to their ritual? Why hadn't I listened to Damien, Stevie Rae or the Twins? They'd been right, even if Lenobia approved of me going, I still could've denied the invitation. Why was I so stupid?

After giving myself a few minutes I forced myself to stop. I pulled my knees up to my chest, hugged them, and rested my forehead on them. I felt as though I had been doing a lot of crying and feeling like crap lately. You know, when I was told I could start my life over, I though it couldn't be worse than my "old" one. Why did life hate me in general at the moment? Seriously, everything that could've gone wrong has gone wrong this week. It's only my second week as a fledgling, and I still have four years to go…if I actually make the Change that is.

"Are you okay?" A voice asked. I looked up and saw Alex standing there next to me.

"Y-yeah. I'm o-okay. Totally fine." I lied, hating the way my voice sounded because of my crying.

"You don't look okay." He replied, concern in his voice. "Mind if I sit with you?"

"No, go ahead." I replied, starting to get a grip on the way I wanted my voice to sound.

He sat quietly beside me. He was so close that our elbows brushed against each other. He reached into his pocket and took out a small pack of tissues. "Here. You look like you could use one." He said as he offered me the pack.

"Th-Thanks," I said, reaching my arm out and taking the pack.

"No problem," He said as I wiped my nose. And for a little while neither of us said anything. "You came from a Dark Daughter's ritual, didn't you?" He asked, breaking the silence that had been created. Under normal circumstances, he would've surprised me with how accurate his question was. But I was feeling so utterly sad that I didn't have any room in my heart to feel the surprise.

"Yeah." I breathed, not allowing myself to cry again.

"Emily didn't tell you about the blood." He stated, sounding almost angry. He hadn't said it like a question, but I answered him anyway.

"No."

He shook his head slightly, but didn't continue to talk about Emily.

"Um…Alex? What're you doing out here? It's so late…" I mumbled. I wanted to smack myself for saying something so dumb. I sounded like I didn't want him there. But I wanted him by me, in this moment I wanted to talk to him.

"I just couldn't concentrate on my homework so I went for a walk. I guess my feet carried me here without me telling them to. I don't know why though, I usually never come over by the wall…" He replied trailing off a little. "Anyways, I didn't mean to intrude or anything. I just saw you crying and figured you might need a friend."

"You're not intruding." I said almost too fast. "I-I'm glad you found me." When would my horrible babble end?

"Me too." He replied. He smiled and then looked kinda uncomfortable. He leaned his head back against the trunk of the tree so that he was looking up at the full moon.

"So...?" I wondered aloud, more to myself than to Alex.

"Do you want to talk to your mentor? It's Lenobia, right?" He suggested.

"Yeah, she's my mentor. But…I don't want to talk to her just yet. I'll see her tomorrow night and I'll talk to her then." I replied.

"Alright. What about your friends? You're friends with Stevie Rae and them, right?" He asked.

"Yeah…," I hesitated, then took a deep breath and continued. "Yeah, I think I need to talk to them for a bit."

"Then you should head towards the dorm house. Come on, I'll walk you there, if you want me to that is." He replied, getting up and offering me a hand. Smiling slightly, I took it and allowed him to help me get to my feet.

"Thanks Alex."

"Anytime." He replied, returning the small smile.

Just like the last time he had walked me home, the walk was too short for my liking. I remembered how he had asked me to watch a movie with him and how I had to kindly turn him down because of my other plans. I couldn't help but hope that he would ask me again.

"Here we are. I would go in with you, but this is the girl's entrance and I'm not allowed in after hours. Are you going to be alright?" He asked once we reached the door.

"Yeah, I'll be alright. Thanks again Alex." I replied. He nodded and then walked away into the pre-dawn light.

* * *

I flipped the light switch as I walked into my room. I'd just come from a very comforting round of "friend therapy" with Stevie Rae and the Twins, and was happy to see that Emily hadn't come back to our room yet.

I was really blessed to have such great friends. Stevie Rae completely understood how I felt, having been in my situation before. Shaunee promised that she would find a way to get back at Emily, while Erin said that she would find a way to even the score with Aphrodite and the terrible triplets. They were there for me and had my back. There were no words to describe how good it felt to know that.

Although I wasn't done being blessed with friendship just yet. Fore on my bed sat a little short haired calico with big owl-like green eyes.

* * *

**Author's Note:**** I am posting this chapter up a day earlier than planned! And HUZZAH! It's a lengthy chapter too! **

**Also, on a different note, this chapter is dedicated to ChiyoChi-Yamanoto, for being such a loyal and awesome reviewer! Your reviews always put a smile on my face. ^_^ I hope you enjoyed Ch.9!**

**DISCLAIMER:**** I do not own the House of Night series. The House of Night series belongs to P.C. Cast and Kristin Cast. They are the owners and writers of the amazing series. This is just a fanfic that I wrote and I only own my OCs. Descriptions of cannon characters, places, and events were taken from Marked. **


	10. Unwanted Company

Chapter Ten – Unwanted Company

"Um…Can I help you?" I asked the cat, trying my best not to sound rude. I was tired and didn't feel like fixing the problems of the cats on campus.

"Yeah, why the hell did it take you so long to come back? Do you know how long I've been sitting here? Where've you been all night? It's practically dawn!" The cat questioned in rapid fire. She reminded me of a mother lecturing her daughter after she had come home _long_ after her curfew.

"Wha-?" I asked, slightly surprised at the way she was talking to me. It was then that I noticed the large green plastic bag sitting by my bed. I walked over to it and examined its contents. There was a litter box, food and water dishes, a box of Friskies cat food, and a sack of kitty litter. It finally clicked with me then. "You're my cat! I-I mean, I'm your human!" I exclaimed, probably impressing her with my amazing communication skills and intelligence.

"You're only figuring that out now?" She snorted.

"Yeah, well I'm used to the other cats on campus bothering me about things they need done." I replied. I took a good look at the cat, noticing everything about her that distinguished her from all the other cats on campus. Her eyes were large green orbs that reminded me slightly of an owl's eyes. Her fur was a mix of light dust grey, charcoal black, and little patches of white, but the dusty grey covered the majority of her little body.

"How did you get this stuff here anyways?" I asked, turning my attention back to the bag of supplies.

"Neferet brought it," She replied. "There's a letter over there for you." She pointed her tail towards a letter on my pillow. I picked it up and was surprised to see a purple collar with a white paw print design around it under the letter. The letter was written in beautiful, flowing script on expensive looking bone-coored stationary.

"_Skylar told me she was coming. I wish for you to remember at all times that she is a special gift from the Goddess. Nyx wishes for us to have a companion in life who shares a part of our soul; a familiar. She is your familiar. When all seems as though it has gone wrong, remember that she is the one you can put all faith, trust, and hope in."_

At the bottom, it was signed with a single script letter: N.

I couldn't help but smile slightly at her warm advice. Realizing that my cat was patiently waiting for me to finish reading and then turn my attention back to her, I suddenly realized just how stupid I could be sometimes.

"Oh my gosh, how rude of me! I haven't introduced myself yet or asked for your name!" I blurted. "I'm Tori Willow, nice to meet you! And you are?"

"That's your job, isn't it?" She asked, continuing to look up at me with her owl-like green eyes as though she was second guessing my sanity.

"You don't have a name?" I asked, a little shocked. I knew that people always named animals, but ever since I started talking to animals, I always wondered if they had names before we renamed them something else.

"It's irrelevant now. It's tradition for us cats to adopt a new name our human gives us." She replied.

"Oh, uh, alright." I replied, taking a minute to think. "Well…how about Sabrina?" I suggested.

"Like the witch?" She asked.

"No, I'm not naming you after a TV show character. I just thought it was a pretty name." I replied.

"Alright then."

"Great! Then from this day forward, you're Sabrina." I said with a smile as I put the purple collar around her neck, making sure it wasn't too tight.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, great. You still haven't told me where you've been all night." She huffed.

"Well…that's a long story." I replied.

"I've got all day." She replied, patting a spot on my bed with her paw as if telling me to take a seat.

"Okay. Well…where to begin…" I said, taking the supplies out of the bag and setting everything up on my side of the room. The last thing I needed was for Emily to go psycho bitch on me because Sabrina's stuff was near her expensive junk. "…I was at a Dark Daughter's ritual." I decided to start there.

"You're part of the Dark Daughters?" Sabrina interrupted, sounding slightly surprised.

"No, I'm not. They didn't want me there; they only wanted my blood for the ritual." I replied. The door suddenly burst open and Emily strolled into the room, looking as though she owned the place.

"You missed dinner." She stated in her fake bubbly voice.

"Drop the 'nice-girl' act, I'm not in the mood for your shit." I replied, my eyes narrowing. I was beyond angry at her.

"Ooh, look at you, acting so tough." She sighed with an extreme dramatic air, before turning serious and flashing her infamous sinister smile. "You weren't a few hours ago. What happened? Did we hurt your _feelings_?" She finished, taking a minute to wait for my reaction. And then she noticed Sabrina. "Eew! What's that little dust rag doing here? Honestly, can't you have your cat therapy sessions somewhere else besides _my_ room? Gheesh, you're such an inconsiderate piece of crap."

"_Dust rag?_ Who do you think you're calling a 'dust rag'? I'm the cleanest cat that you'll ever meet! I clean my fur twice a day every single day!" Sabrina snapped back, appalled at what she was being called. It became obvious that she was a little self conscious on how she looked. She continued to yell at Emily, even though she knew Emily didn't hear nor care about what she said.

"Sabrina's my cat. She choose me, and she isn't a dust rag. And what do you mean by '_my room'_? I live here too and that makes it _our_ room, no matter how much we _both_ hate it. And you think I'm inconsiderate? Hypocrite. What happened to telling me about the blood?" I argued. I could feel my blood beginning to boil from my anger. This is my snapping point; all the crap that she's put me through since day one, she's getting it all now.

"Figures that the ugliest cat on campus would choose you. And about the blood, well, let's say that it just slipped my mind." Emily sneered.

"You're the evilest little piece of shit I've ever had the _dis_pleasure to meet." I shot back, my finger nails digging into my palms as I tried to keep my anger under some sort of control. I didn't want to do anything that I would regret.

"It's a gift." She replied lightly.

I was about to open my mouth to shout another comeback, but instead of letting my anger get the better of me, I allowed myself to let out an irritated sigh. "You're not worth my time and I don't have anything else to say to you. I'm tired so I'm going to sleep." I replied as I grabbed my pajamas from my closet and went into the bathroom to change.

"Well…fine then!" Emily snapped back, sounding slightly surprised.

* * *

The situation with Emily didn't get any better. The week following the Full Moon Ritual and my horrible experience with the Dark Daughters was torturous. Emily became even nastier, as if it were possible.

She spent that week focused on trying to keep me as miserable and stressed as possible. She moved things from my side of the room into the hallway, things like Sabrina's litter box and food bowls. She would scoop Sabrina up when I wasn't looking and toss (literally toss) her out into the hallway. She constantly complained that the "stench of my filth was enough without the help of the animal". She was the biggest pain and annoyance in my life and I really hated her. Erin and Shaunee probably didn't realize how accurate the title 'hag from hell' was for her.

And although Emily made it her personal mission to keep me miserable, something good did happen to me at least. Alex finally asked me out again! Well not exactly asked me out on a date, but he asked me if I wanted to watch a movie with him. This time I said yes, and was now eagerly waiting for Friday as I slowly dealt with Emily's crap. The news about Alex asking me to watch movies with him didn't improve her mood or treatment towards me. I don't know who told her, since I sure as heck haven't actually had a conversation with her since the night of the ritual, but it seemed to defiantly piss her off that I was hanging out with her ex.

"What are you going to wear?" Shaunee asked, at dinner Thursday night.

"I don't know. I mean, it's not an actual date so I thought I would just wear what I usually wear." I replied.

"What? Are you kidding me? You can't wear your school uniform on a _date_!" Damien replied as though he were about to have a heart attack.

"It's not a date though." I corrected lamely.

"Like that matters!" Erin said, equally as surprised as Damien.

"Date or not, you always want to look your absolute best in front of a potential boyfriend." Shaunee lectured.

"We've been through this before, I don't –" I started, but Stevie Rae interrupted me.

"You don't know if you like him romantically or not. We know, it's just that you should at least _try_ and then see what you think of him."

"Okay fine." I sighed, knowing that this was a battle I wasn't going to win.

"Great, so let's decide what you're going to wear on your date tomorrow night before you go watch the movie. How does an hour early sound?" Stevie Rae suggested.

"It's not a date." I repeated for the third time, but decided that I wasn't going to get it across to them. "So what am I supposed to do? I've never been on a date or a get together with a guy before so…" I asked, willing to accept their eager advice.

"You've never been on a date?" Erin asked.

"Gosh girl, why are you so hopeless?" Shaunee asked facepalming.

"We'll you're asking the right people for advice at least." Damien replied. My situation was obviously worse than they originally thought, though I wasn't too bothered. "First of all, about what you're going to wear, you look about Shaunee's size, do you think she could borrow some of your clothes?" He asked Shaunee.

"I got no problem with that."

"Good. Tomorrow when you show up at the twin's room, we can give you the clothes and a much needed makeover." Damien continued.

"A 'much needed makeover'?" I repeated, making it a question.

"Do you honestly expect us to just hand you an outfit and just neglect to do your hair and makeup?" Damien asked.

"I shottie doing your hair!" Stevie Rae said, shooting her hand into the air for emphasis.

"And I call doing the makeup!" Shaunee said.

I looked to Stevie Rae for some back up, hoping that she would save me from them, but I didn't get any help.

* * *

From the moment I walked into the room that Friday night, Damien shoved a ball of clothing into my hands and ordered me to change in the Twin's bathroom. Most of the clothes were Shaunee's, since she was closest to my size. Erin was just about a size smaller than me except when it came to shoes; where like Shaunee we were the same size.

The blouse was an interesting shade of emerald. It matched my lively hazel eyes that couldn't decide if they wanted to be green or brown, though they were more green than brown. Add that with a pair of skinny jeans and a pair of Erin's boots and you have yourself a rather stunning yet casual outfit.

As soon as I emerged from the bathroom, I was dragged off to a stood by Shaunee and Erin's mirror. Stevie Rae instantly got to work on my hair as I was pushed into the seat. And as I sat there, letting she brush my hair as Damien thought about a particular style that would look good with the outfit, I looked at my reflection. I had to hand it to Damien; he knew what I should wear to compliment my features.

Okay so it wasn't really that bad an idea; allowing them to give me a complete makeover. I never realized how much a different hair style and outfit could change a person. _'Thanks Mother for giving me a normal teen hood.'_ I bitterly sighed to myself.

"Ladies, I believe our work here is done." Damien said with a smile.

"You'd never know she was the same person." Shaunee agreed.

"Ditto twin," Erin added. "If Emily was able to attract Alex, then Tori shouldn't have a problem."

I'd given up on trying to convince them that I wasn't sure of my feelings and that this wasn't a date. That being said, I was worried about one thing. "Are you guys sure this isn't too much? I mean, it's not a date and I don't want to give him…" I paused to take a moment to search for the right words, "the wrong idea."

"Tori, would you quit your worrying? There's no need to worry your head off, you look fine." Stevie Rae said with a sweet smile.

* * *

"Hey Alex," I said as I walked towards the TV that Alex had claimed as his own for the morning. He was setting the movie up in the DVD player as I took my spot on the love seat.

Unlike me, he either didn't decide to or wasn't forced to tidy himself up. It didn't look like he had bothered to run a comb through his charcoal hair since it stuck up wildly as it usually did. He was still dressed in his school uniform: an unbuttoned dark navy jacket, untucked white dress shirt, and undone black tie with the third former symbol.

"Oh, hello Tori. Good timing, I was about to start the movie." He greeted as he held up the DVD case for me to see; it was Spider-man 3.

"You weren't thinking of starting –" I began to say before being interrupted.

"Dude! You aren't gonna start this sh!t without us, right?" A loud male voice nearly shouted in my ear as its owner hopped over the love seat and plopped himself down.

"Yeah, cuz you know that would be rude." A different teen, also male, said as he flopped down onto one of the huge poofy bean bag chairs.

"What, no popcorn or chips? That's lame man." Yet another guy said as he took his seat next to the first friend on the other side of the loveseat, he had walked around the couch instead of jumping from around the back.

"Who are you?" The first one asked, as though only now realizing that I was sitting there.

"I'm –" I began, but was yet again interrupted.

"Alex, why didn't you tell us you had a _girlfriend_?" The third guy asked. I could feel my cheeks heat up slightly now.

"This is Tori Willow, and she isn't my girlfriend. She's only a friend. Now move your ass Aidan, that's my spot." Alex replied, remote in hand, as he shoved his friend over to make room for himself next to me. There was a quick round of introductions before we finally started the movie. Although my mind wasn't entirely on the movie.

Sure I didn't mind that Alex had invited his friends. But it would've been nice if he had told me they were going to be here. But what did I expect? This wasn't a date so there really wasn't any particular reason why he couldn't or shouldn't invite his other friends to a movie on a Friday morning. So why did it feel so weird when he told them that I was _only_ a friend?

Well there was one thing I could be sure about, Erin and Shaunee are going to flip when they hear about this.

* * *

**Author's Note:**

**Hello everyone! I'm so sorry this took me so long to write! Hopefully I kinda made it up by making this chapter longer than I planned for it to be. Midterms were during the last week in January and I have been getting pounded with unheard of amounts of homework for awhile now. Anyways, enough with my excuses for not updating in so long, I'll just say it now: I'm not entirely happy with this chapter (writers block and all) so I just stuck with my rough draft and expanded a little. I know it's a real crappy chapter, but I'll try and make it up to you all with my next chapter! ^_^' **


	11. Author's Note

Hello Readers, I'm writing this notice to you all just to clear something up (since all of a sudden I've received many messages asking when this story will be updated.)

I'm sorry, but this story is on hiatus at the moment. And I'm not going to lie; I might not even continue to write this story since I've found myself to be less in love with the series after reading Awakened. I feel that the series has been dragged out to the point of overkill and that the characters have had no development in the past five books or so. In fact, I really don't even like the plot to the series anymore.

On my profine I keep a list of what I'm writing/working on and how complete it's status is. I update it very often too.


End file.
